Description: Bust-length portrait of the formerly enslaved and later South Carolina congressman who commandeered and harbored fifteen enslaved people on the Confederate steamer, “Planter,” consequently escaping to freedom across the Charleston Bay in May 1862.

Smalls, a “Planter” crew member who impersonated the Confederate Captain, surrendered the vessel to a flotilla of the Union Blockade after navigating passed several Confederate fortifications.

The nationally publicized escape sparked a military campaign to recruit African American volunteers in South Carolina. Small, attired in a white shirt and a dark-colored jacket, looks at the viewer.

NOTES: Title from item.
Date from copyright statement: Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania by McAllister & Brother, 728 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia.

See account of escape with illustrations in Harper’s Weekly, June 14, 1862, p. 372. (LCP **Per H, 1863).

Originally part of a McAllister scrapbook of portraits. McAllister Collection, gift, 1886.
Description revised 2021.

Printer: McAllister & Brother, publisher.

Provenance: McAllister, John A. (John Allister), 1822-1896, collector.

Location: Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| cdv portraits -sitter-Small [(3)5750.F.44b]

Accession number: (3)5750.F.44b