 though his master later sent him off to be hired in Charleston, where he was allowed to keep a small amount of his wages. Robert Smalls was ethnically Gullah Geechee, a society of African descendants along the coast and sea islands of the Carolinas, Georgia, and North Florida. And his familiarity with the sea would become key to his freedom via a ship called the Planter. His great-great-grandson, Michael B. Moore, shares the amazing story of how Robert Smalls took his fate into his own hands.