Series: “If All Black Men Were Pacifist”
Size 24 x 36 inches
Medium: Screen print on paper using red, green, yellow, and black ink; portrait rendered in black archival Micron pen and white charcoal. 
 
 
Tactical Genius, Reluctant Hero
Robert Smalls (1839–1915) was born into slavery in South Carolina, but during the Civil War, he commandeered a Confederate ship, disguised himself as the captain, and sailed his family and crew to freedom. He then turned the ship over to Union forces, offering not just a vessel, but a critical advantage to the Union war effort.
Smalls went on to serve five terms in the U.S. Congress during Reconstruction, advocating for Black education, civil rights, and land access. His life is a blueprint for resistance through intelligence, timing, and radical self-determination. In every role, sailor, soldier, strategist, legislator; Smalls refused to be anyone’s property and refused to leave others behind.
 
Quote:
“My race needs no special defense, for the past history of them in this country proves them to be equal to any people anywhere.”
—Robert Small