History

Learn the remarkable life of Robert Smalls

BY ERIK ANDERSON

Special to The News-Post

Intellectually, we know the men and women who fought to end slavery in the United States were very brave. But reading about their heroism in the dry text of a history book doesn’t always inspire a strong emotional connection. More than a century and a half after the fact, we can have trouble understanding where they found the courage to risk their lives for justice.

On Jan. 7, visitors to the National Museum of Civil War Medicine will have the rare opportunity to ask that question of one of those brave, longdead freedom fighters in person.

Well, sort of.

In honor of the 160th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation (Jan. 1), the museum will host a presentation by Timothy Hodges, who will portray Captain Robert Smalls, a young African American who in May 1862 escaped enslavement in South Carolina by commandeering a Confederate ship and delivering it to the Union Navy.

“Smalls’ daring escape from slavery … captivated the nation and inspired many in the Union to push for Emancipation,” Brad Stone, a volunteer docent with the museum, stated in a news release. [His escape] “helped convince President Lincoln and others that Blacks should be given the opportunity to fight with Union forces.”

Smalls would later pilot several Union boats in key naval operations during the Civil War, and he recruited about 5,000 African Americans to fight for the Union. Following the war, he drew on his celebrity status to become an important civil rights advocate. After learning to read as an adult and promoting educational opportunities for the formerly enslaved, he became one of the first Black legislators, serving eight years in the U.S. House of Representatives as a congressman from South Carolina.

As Hodges put it, “He’s just got a really, really good story, and it’s just something that needs to be told.”

In an interview, Stone said Hodges has become a renowned expert on Smalls within the historical reenactment world. Hodges is a long-standing member of The Confederation of Union Generals, an all-volunteer organization based in Pennsylvania that seeks to bring historical figures to life through authentic live performances backed by high-quality research.

A member himself, Stone said the CUG is “tough to get into,” requiring prospective members demonstrate complete mastery of their adopted historic personas to a committee over a year-long probationary period.

“You have to be prepared to answer every aspect of the person’s life,” Stone said. “It’s a very intensive process, and I can tell you from the presentations [Hodges has given], he knows his stuff in and out.”

Hodges said he decided to take on the persona of Smalls rather than give third-person lectures about his life because presenting history from a first-person perspective is a much more engaging experience for the audience. “When you do it in firstperson, it comes alive, because you’re doing that persona as that person,” he said. “If you do it right, you become that person, and you put life into him, and it’s much, much better.”

Hodges said presenting Smalls’ story in the first-person allows him to introduce elements that give audiences a more grounded sense of the stakes than, say, showing slides from a PowerPoint presentation. When he is reliving Smalls’ dramatic escape,

Timothy Hodges portrays Robert Smalls.

Courtesy photo

THE REMARKABLE LIFE OF ROBERT SMALLS

When: 2 to 3 p.m. Jan. 7 Where: National Museum of Civil War Medicine, 48 E. Patrick St., Frederick Tickets: Event included in price of museum admission. $9.50 for adults, $8.50 for seniors (65 and up), $7 for students, $8.50 for military with ID, free for museum members and children 9 and under. Info: 301-695-1864, civilwarmed.org

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