About Defiant: The Story of Robert Smalls
The incredible story of Robert Smalls is one that deserves to be told - and remembered. During the height of the Civil War, Smalls, an enslaved harbor pilot in Charleston, pulled off one of the most daring heists in history - stealing a Confederate warship and sailing it past the naval blockade to freedom! Not only did his actions help convince President Abraham Lincoln to accept African American soldiers into the Union Army, but Smalls eventually served as a captain in the Navy - of the very ship he had stolen! After the war, Smalls was elected to the House of Representatives, becoming one of the first African Americans in Congress. While there, he wrote legislation for the first free and compulsory public school system in the US and so much more.