Robert Smalls is a legend. He'd be a legend if all he had done was escape slavery and his Confederate conscription. But he also delivered the vessel (the CSS Planter) to the Union, rescuing himself, his family, his crew of fellow Black conscripts, and the crew's families. And he did so at a a strategic moment, after the Confederates had just loaded several big guns and ammunition onto the vessel. They tricked the folks at Fort Sumpter, and made their way straight to the Union naval presence nearby, taking down the Confederate flag they'd been flying and putting up a white bedsheet. The Union nearly fired on them in the dark, but as they were raising the gun the sun rose to illuminate the white sheet and the Union held their fire

Smalls and much of the crew were Gullah, and I believe Smalls was one of the first (and few) Gullah statesmen in American history. Smalls did so much more for the nation too. He helped shame Philadelphia and many other big, supposedly tolerant cities to reform some of their most obscene anti-Black ordinances and policies. He provided the Union with major advantages in the war effort, including Tennessee. He was a pivotal figure in Reconstruction. He was legitimately one of the coolest people in American history, and he should be one of the most famous people in the nation. And he's only one of the many, many pivotal figures in American history of Gullah-Geechee background, yet almost no one today knows about him or Gullah-Geechee language & culture