Many immigrants to America arrived with little but the clothes on their back; others arrived in chains. Even as our history bears witness to the horrors of slavery, it also records numerous men who reacted to enslavement with incredible feats of valor. One such man was Robert Smalls. A skilled boat pilot, the 23-year-old worked with six other enslaved men crewing the Confederate steamship Planter, docked in the Charleston harbor. It was just before dawn on May 13, 1862, and the white captain... Read this story
