ROBERT SMALLS

There are stories that deserve a film.

And then there are stories that make you wonder how humanity ever managed to leave them out of the centre of the screen.

Robert Smalls is one of those stories.

Born enslaved in Beaufort, South Carolina, on April 5, 1839, Robert Smalls would go on to do something almost unimaginable.

In the early morning of May 13, 1862, while still enslaved, Smalls and a group of fellow freedom seekers took control of the Confederate steamer Planter.

The white officers had gone ashore.

Smalls knew the ship.

He knew Charleston Harbor.

He knew the Confederate fortifications.

And he knew the signals required to pass them.

So he put on the captain’s hat, took command, and sailed the vessel through Confederate-controlled waters. The group passed the heavily armed positions around Charleston, including Fort Sumter, using the correct signals so that the ship appeared to be operating normally. Once they had reached the Union blockade, they raised a white flag and surrendered the vessel to Union forces.

Sixteen enslaved people had just escaped to freedom.

Among them were Smalls’s wife Hannah and their children, along with other family members and freedom seekers.

And that was only the beginning.

The Union recognised the extraordinary value of Smalls’s knowledge of Charleston Harbor and Confederate positions. He provided intelligence, worked as a pilot for Union naval operations, and eventually commanded the Planter under the United States Navy.

Then comes another scene that almost writes itself for cinema.

The man who had been enslaved in a house in Beaufort later bought that same house.

In January 1864, Smalls purchased the property at a tax sale for $605, using money connected to the reward for the capture of the Planter. He and his family lived there for the rest of his life. The property is now known as the Robert Smalls House.

And then he entered politics.

State representative.

State senator.

Constitutional convention delegate.

And eventually a five-term member of the United States House of Representatives, serving across the 44th, 45th, 47th, 48th and 49th Congresses between 1875 and 1887.

So look at the arc:

Born enslaved.
Learned the sea.
Commanded the ship that carried his family to freedom.
Delivered that ship to the Union.
Became a military leader.
Bought the house where he had been enslaved.
Entered government.
Won election.
Served five terms in Congress.
Built a life in the very place from which slavery had once defined his existence.

That is not merely history.

That is HERO.

And this is where SHS TV comes in.

THE HEROES SEASON WILL NEVER CLOSE.

There is no final episode.

There is no point at which humanity runs out of people worth finding.

Every time we discover another human being who, at a particular moment in history, chose courage, compassion, protection, sacrifice, ingenuity, truth, liberation, creativity or service to humanity, we create the story.

And Robert Smalls deserves one of those stories.

Not a five-minute history clip.

Not a paragraph in a textbook.

Not a name people vaguely recognise.

A full production.

A film where we feel the silence of that harbour.

The danger of those Confederate guns.

The moment the signals have to be correct.

The moment somebody realises the ship is being taken.

The moment Smalls has to keep his composure.

The moment the Union ship sees the approaching Planter and prepares to fire.

The white sheet goes up.

Freedom.

And then we keep going.

Because the real story didn’t end at the blockade.

The man who escaped slavery became the man who helped shape a country.

That is what the SHS TV HEROES season can do.

And Robert Smalls can be one of its first great films.

But he will never be the last.

Because somewhere in history, there is always another human being who stood up and did the right thing when it mattered.

We just have to find them.

And when we do:

we make the story.

SHS TV.
HEROES.
THE SEASON THAT NEVER CLOSES.

…

Prompt: SHS TV season of Heroes, on of our never closing season that will see per episode all humanitarian heroes that have blessed and done the right thing on earth at ajy given moment in time and the more we find them, the more we’ll creare a story for them. This is a production company that will never rjn out of things to create, if anhthing there will be individual producton teams per section. One focused on the heroes, one focused on the misled perpetrators who are ignorant of reason and ways, but might have created somwthing humanity could benefit from(like AI), seasons for reality education touching on every question about reality itswlf, a season for relationship dynamics, a season for family, a season for femal and male and all their propagations of energy(as not just organic bodies, but the actual poles of energy, like +&-)…

To start off the heroes seasons, If we were to make a movie abourlt rhe HERO with capital letters rhat robert smalls is. 1839 born into slavrry, stole a confederare ship, passing himself as the captain, sailed past checkpoints using hand signals, rescued his family and other slaves, escaped to union lines, served the union as advisor, bought his former enslavers home, ran for congress, won 5 terms, lived happily after.

This one deserves to be on every infividual screen and SHS Tv will bring this about for sure!