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Lowell Milken Discovery Project Robert Smalls, The Man Who Commandeered The Planter To Freedom: An Unsung Hero of The Civil War

This document discusses the research done by Eric Lagos and Soren Malm on the Civil War figure Robert Smalls for the Lowell Milken Discovery Project. They chose to focus on Robert Smalls due to his inspiring story of commandeering a Confederate ship called The Planter and delivering it to the Union forces, despite being an enslaved man. Through searching libraries and online, as well as contacting historians and a descendant of Smalls, they gathered many primary sources on his accomplishments, which included helping convince Lincoln to allow black soldiers and becoming the first black congressman. They presented their findings on a website to help educate others about this unsung hero of the Civil War whose story is not well known.

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71 views2 pages

Lowell Milken Discovery Project Robert Smalls, The Man Who Commandeered The Planter To Freedom: An Unsung Hero of The Civil War

This document discusses the research done by Eric Lagos and Soren Malm on the Civil War figure Robert Smalls for the Lowell Milken Discovery Project. They chose to focus on Robert Smalls due to his inspiring story of commandeering a Confederate ship called The Planter and delivering it to the Union forces, despite being an enslaved man. Through searching libraries and online, as well as contacting historians and a descendant of Smalls, they gathered many primary sources on his accomplishments, which included helping convince Lincoln to allow black soldiers and becoming the first black congressman. They presented their findings on a website to help educate others about this unsung hero of the Civil War whose story is not well known.

Uploaded by

Soren_Eric
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Lowell Milken Discovery Project

Robert Smalls, The Man Who Commandeered The Planter to


Freedom: An Unsung Hero of The Civil War




























By Eric Lagos and Soren Malm






A couple of years ago, there was an informative section of the Today Show
where Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was promoting his book Robert Smalls: The Boat
Thief. When we heard about the theme of The Discovery Award this year, we
knew Robert Smalls would be the perfect topic. We read the book and Robert
Smalls was our first choice for he had certainly proved to be an unsung hero. We
were inspired by his generosity and humility. The more we looked into the man,
the more impressed we became, and even more curious about this mans
incredible feat and why not many knew about it. Eventually, we just decided that
this was what our topic would have to be.

One of our approaches to research was searching for Robert Smalls on the
Internet and looking at the websites that would lead us to primary sources. This
approach proved quite useful and successful. We also visited libraries and asked
librarians where we could find books and/or if they had any with them. At first, we
werent expecting to find many books at the libraries because while Robert
Smalls was celebrated at the time, hardly anyone in our generation knows of him.
We also looked high and low for people who knew of Robert Smalls, such as
university professors and historians. We even managed to find a descendant of
Robert Smalls. Most of the best sources turned out to be books, interviews,
documents, or documentaries, because primary sources or copies of primary
sources are the most reliable.

We chose to present our findings in the form of a website because we would like
to be able to present our information to others easily so that they will be able to
learn about historic Robert Smalls. We started out looking at websites so that we
got a broad idea of what he did. As we dug deeper, we looked at books, lots of
books, watched a documentary, found a newspaper article from the time, we
emailed historians, and even emailed the great-granddaughter of Robert Smalls
who replied. Then, finally, we put together our Weebly website for the world to
see.

Our topic, Robert Smalls, relates to the theme of Unsung Hero because over
time he has become unrecognized and uncelebrated in history. As a slave, he
miraculously managed to steal the ship The Planter from the South and get past
several Southern guardposts. He delivered the ship and its munitions to the
North. He also helped to convince Abraham Lincoln to allow Blacks to fight in the
Civil War, completely changing the tide of the war. He also was the first Black
Congressman, and left a legacy of the importance of education by establishing
the first compulsorily public school system in South Carolina. We want to ensure
his deeds are not forgotten.



499 words

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