The Planter

The spring of 1862 started in the South Carolina Lowcountry with the establishment of a US military presence on Port Royal Island. Beaufort served as a beacon of hope for freedom seekers in the region. During this period many freedom seekers risked their lives to escape bondage to the freedom found behind the Union lines on Port Royal Island. Perhaps one of the most daring and brazen examples of this took place in the early morning hours of May 13, 1862.

The Planter was a 147-foot sidewheel steamer built in Charleston, SC in 1860. When the war broke out, the steamer was used by Brig. Gen. Roswell Ripley as part of the Confederate defenses of Charleston. The Planter served as a dispatch and transport boat for Confederate troops and arms between the fortifications in the harbor, as well as laying and maintaining harbor defenses. Although the Planter was used by the Confederate Army, it was owned by John Ferguson and leased to the CSA. The crew consisted of three white officers: Charles Relyea (Captain), Samuel Hancock (First Officer), and Samuel Pitcher (Engineer) as well as seven enslaved crewmembers: Robert Smalls (Helmsman), John Small (Engineer), Alfred Gourdine (Engineer), and Deckhands: Abraham Jackson, Gabriel Turner, David Jones, Jack Gibs. Although it was in violation of standing orders, the white crew of the Planter often left the enslaved crew to man the steamer overnight so they could be with their families. Relyea trusted his crew and believed that the enslaved men were not capable of such treachery…he was wrong.

In early May, the enslaved crew of the Planter began a series of secret meetings that would lead to one of the most daring escapes of the war. Along with the enslaved crew of the Planter, Samuel Chisolm, an enslaved crewmen of the Etiwan; William Morrison, an enslaved tinsmith; and Abram Allston, an enslaved boatman at Fort Moultrie were included in the planning for the heist. According to accounts, the crew met in secret, possibly at the home of William Morrison, in the weeks leading up to the heist. The enslaved men created a plan to collect their families and sail for the Union blockade under the cover of the early morning fog. Although it was only ten miles from the Charleston wharfs to the blockade, the perilous route to freedom would send them past several fortifications and batteries, any of which capable of sinking the steamer if their escape was revealed.

On the afternoon of May 12, the crew decided the time was right to make their strike to freedom. The Planter, having recently been used to move artillery pieces to John’s Island, had four extra artillery pieces on board in addition to the two that were normally outfitted to the vessel. The enslaved crew of the Planter, minus Gibs and Jones, and the three other men and their families put their plan into action. When night fell, Chisolm and two other members of the crew led the families to the Etiwan, which was moored at the North Atlantic Wharf, to await the arrival of the Planter. Among them were Robert Smalls’ wife Hannah and their children Clara (step-daughter of Robert Smalls), Elizabeth and Robert, Jr., John Small’s wife Susan and their son Philip, Annie White (possible John Small’s sister or sister-in-law, Lavinia Wilson. The crew of the Planter began the preparations to put the steamer out to sea. Moored at the Southern Wharf, the crew readied the boilers and at 3:00 a.m. slowly began moving up the Cooper River to the North Atlantic Wharf. After retrieving their families from the Etiwan, the Planter and 16 freedom seekers headed out to the channel under the cover of the morning fog.

As they made their way into the channel, Smalls disguised himself as Captain Relyea in his coat and straw hat. Abram Allston, an experienced pilot, manned the wheel, and the rest of the crew manned the boilers and served as deck hands while the women and children remained out of sight below deck. The crew were quite familiar with the waters of the Charleston Harbor, as well as the Confederate harbor defenses - including the signals needed to pass the forts without raising any alarm. The Planter slipped past Castle Pickney and Fort Ripley at a safe distance, but soon faced its first challenge, passing closely to Fort Johnson and a patrol boat. Robert Smalls called down for more speed as the steamer passed its first challenge without raising any alarm. The next, and biggest challenge still lay ahead: Fort Sumter and the gunboats the surrounded it.

Across the channel from Fort Sumter sat Fort Moultrie, putting the Planter in a dangerous position of crossfire between the two fortifications. At around 4:15 a.m. the Planter approached Fort Sumter. As the nervous crew approached the fort, Smalls gave the proper signal to the fort’s sentry and was allowed to pass. With freedom in their sights, the crew of the Planter made their way towards the US Naval blockade at full steam. As the Planter approached the US Navy, the freedom seekers, with liberty almost in their grasp, now faced the threat of US cannon. Unaware of the freedom-seeking heist, the acting Captain of the USS Onward, John Frederick Nickels, assumed the Planter was a Confederate threat attacking his ship. Nickels ordered all hands and readied the ships guns to fire on the steamer. As the crew of the Planter observed this threat, they hurried to raise a bedsheet up the mast to signal surrender.

The Planter pulled alongside the Onward and Captain Nickels greeted the disguised Captain Robert Smalls. Their strike for freedom was over, and the crew of the Planter and their families were free. In the months and years that followed, the freedom-seekers of the Planter each charted their own unique paths through emancipation and Reconstruction. Some remained in the military, serving in the Army and Navy during the Civil War and beyond. Others became business leaders and entrepreneurs. They started families or just went back to work. Perhaps most famously - at least two became political leaders during Reconstruction, with Robert Smalls reaching some of the highest levels of state and national government.