On this day in 1862, 150 years ago, Robert Smalls commandeered an armed American Confederate ship in Charleston in order to emancipate himself and several others from slavery.

Smalls was hired in 1861 as a deckhand on Planter, the transport steamer serving Brigadier General Roswell Ripley, commander of the Second Military District of South Carolina. Smalls later became its pilot. In the early morning hours of May 13, 1862, while the white crew was ashore, Smalls, then 23, commandeered Planter, loaded with armaments for the rebel forts. With his wife, children and 12 other slaves aboard he gave the correct whistle signal as he passed each rebel fort. He then sailed toward Onward, the nearest Union blockading ship. As Onward prepared to fire on the approaching rebel ship, it raised the white flag of surrender. As Planter came alongside the Union ship, Smalls, elegantly dressed in a white shirt and dress jacket, raised his hat high in the air and shouted, “Good morning, sir! I have brought you some of the old United States’ guns, sir!”

Smalls then served the Union Navy, including duty as the first black captain of a U.S. vessel, and convinced the Union Army to accept black soldiers in August of 1862.

He later became a respected Republican politician in South Carolina where he created the first state law in the United States for free and mandatory public education.