Speeches at the Constitutional Convention

The pamphlet shown here is a collection of speeches by Robert Smalls spoken during the Constitutional Convention in South Carolina, where many of the proposed changes to the constitutions were designed with the intention of disenfranchising African-Americans residing in South Carolina. Smalls was a district representative from South Carolina, and is also known as a publisher, businessman, and maritime pilot. Born into slavery in Beaufort, South Carolina, he freed himself, his crew, and their families during the American Civil War by commandeering a Confederate transport ship, CSS Planter, in Charleston harbor, on May 13, 1862, and sailing it from Confederate-controlled waters of the harbor to the U.S. blockade that surrounded it.