Steal the Ship, Robert – Bonafide Joe | Robert Smalls Delta Slide Blues (Official Lyric Video)

"Steal the Ship, Robert" is an original Delta slide-guitar blues by Bonafide Joe about Robert Smalls, the enslaved harbor pilot who carried his crew and their families out of Charleston aboard the Confederate steamer Planter before dawn on May 13, 1862, and went on to serve five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Original song by Bonafide Joe THE HISTORY BEHIND THE SONG Robert Smalls was born enslaved in Beaufort, South Carolina, on April 5, 1839. As a young man he was hired out on the Charleston waterfront and became an expert at navigating the harbor and the South Carolina and Georgia coast. In 1856 he married Hannah Jones, who was also enslaved. During the Civil War he worked as the wheelman, in practice the pilot, of the Planter, an armed Confederate transport and dispatch steamer. May 13, 1862: The night before, the Planter's three white officers went ashore in Charleston, leaving the enslaved crew aboard. Before dawn, Smalls and the crew fired the boilers, eased away from the wharf, and stopped at another wharf to pick up their families, including Hannah and their children. In all, sixteen or seventeen people were aboard. Smalls wore the captain's straw hat and stood in the pilot house with his arms folded, as Captain Relyea did, and gave the expected steam-whistle signals at each Confederate post. Fort Sumter answered and let the Planter pass. Once out of range of the last guns, the crew hauled down the Confederate flags, raised a white bedsheet, and surrendered the Planter to the USS Onward of the Union blockade, which nearly fired on them before the white flag was seen. After: Smalls served the Union as a pilot, on the Planter and the ironclad Keokuk, and in late 1863 was given command of the Planter. He later bought the Beaufort house of his former enslaver, the house where he had grown up enslaved. He served in the South Carolina House and Senate and was elected to the U.S. House, serving parts of five terms between 1875 and 1887. The spoken quote: At South Carolina's 1895 constitutional convention, one of six Black delegates, Smalls spoke against provisions designed to disenfranchise Black voters. His words, as quoted in the song: "My race needs no special defense, for the past history of them in this country proves them to be the equal of any people anywhere." The sentence continues: "All they need is an equal chance in the battle of life." ABOUT THE LYRICS The song is a blues, not a history lecture, and it compresses some things: • The Planter was an armed transport and dispatch boat rather than a front-line warship, and Smalls was not alone: a crew of enslaved men planned and carried out the escape together. • "Sleepin' in a chain" and the chains drifting in the tide are images of slavery, not a literal description of the crew that night. • The sentry "waving me onward" is the song's picture of Fort Sumter answering the whistle signal (and a nod to the USS Onward). • "Two long blasts and a short one" is the song's rendering; sources agree he gave the proper signal but the exact pattern is not firmly documented. • Where the sheet came from, and the words sung in the first person, are the song's telling, not documented quotations. The only quotation is the 1895 line above. • "Captain Smalls" came later (1863), and the 1895 speech was given in Columbia, South Carolina, after his years in Congress, not on the House floor. LYRICS The full lyrics appear on screen and in the English captions (CC). CHAPTERS 0:00 Spoken Intro – Robert Smalls was born a slave 0:32 Verse 1 – Steerin' this old Planter 0:56 Verse 2 – Every bend and sandbar 1:17 Chorus – Steal the ship, Robert 1:45 Verse 3 – The captain's straw hat 2:06 Verse 4 – Gave the whistle like the captain 2:29 Bridge – A white bedsheet for the Union fleet 2:57 Verse 5 – Captain Smalls 3:18 Verse 6 – Washington, five terms 3:41 Spoken Break – 1895: "My race needs no special defense" 3:56 Final Chorus – Sail it into the light 4:19 Outro – Two long blasts CREDITS Original song by Bonafide Joe Visuals: AI-assisted illustrations in an 1860s tintype and steel-engraving style, pre-dawn Charleston harbor warming to gold sunrise, with slow parallax motion and no strobing. People are shown only from behind, in silhouette or at a distance; no real faces, flags or insignia are depicted. #BonafideJoe #RobertSmalls #DeltaBlues #SlideGuitar #LyricVideo