Robert Smalls: The Boat Thief

On a moonlit night in the Spring of 1862, a group of slaves stole one of the Confederacy's most crucial gunships from its wharf in the South Carolina port of Charleston and delivered it to the Federal Navy. This audacious and intricately coordinated escape, masterminded by a twenty-four-year-old black sailor named Robert Smalls, astonished the world and exploded the Confederate claim that Southern slaves did not crave freedom or have the ability to take decisive action.

Robert Small's heroic career had only begun. A brilliant military strategist, he was quickly promoted to the rank of captain in the Federal Navy, where he served fearlessly in many critical battles. Not only was Smalls a great soldier, he was also a powerful activist, whose eloquent appeal to Abraham Lincoln convinced the president to enlist 5,000 former slaves in the Union armed forces, shattering the color barrier that had kept black men out. Smalls drew great crowds as a spokesman for the abolitionist cause, and his fame as a man of outstanding character inspired the broad public support that encouraged Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. Smalls also served six terms in the United States Congress.

In this moving picture book, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. tells the story of a great American hero, a man whose dedication to the cause of freedom gave him courage in the face of extraordinary dangers.