Robert Smalls biography

Profile

Robert Smalls was an enslaved African American who eventually became a sea captain and politician. He served in both the South Carolina House of Representatives and from 1870 to 1874 in the State Senate. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1875. Smalls was convicted of taking a $5,000 bribe while in the Senate in 1877 and sentenced to prison but was pardoned by the governor.