'Escape to freedom'

Standing at the ship's wheel, wearing the captain's broad-brimmed hat, Robert's shaking hands tried to button the long-tailed coat. "I hope they can't see my face," he said to Philip. He gripped the wheel to keep his hands from shaking. The steam engine's sounds matched the thunck, thunck, thunck of Robert's beating heart. "I've never steered this ship in the dark."

"We're goin' too slow," Philip said.

"I'm avoiding the torpedoes," Robert answered.

Last week he'd steered this Confederate gunboat, called the Planter, as the crew dropped gunpowder-filled kegs all over Charleston Harbor. The captain had said, "The enemy can't see these torpedoes 'cuz they float underwater. They'll blow a hole in their ships' hulls if they hit one."

That afternoon, the captain ordered all the slaves to stay overnight on the Planter while he and the officers went ashore. "We'll see you in the morning."

Robert grinned. "We can put our plan into action," he told his fellow slaves. The sun had not yet risen in the early morning when Robert said, "Philip, hoist the Confederate and South Carolina flags." In the ship's log book he wrote, "May 13, 1862. Planter leaves harbor. Heading east."

"I'm hopin' everyone's sleepin' and can't hear this noisy ship," he told Philip. Their first stop was at the North Atlantic Wharf to pick up their families.

Robert tried to blow the whistle to signal Ft. Sumter that a ship was passing. "Philip, if I can't blow the whistle, the guards'll fire the cannons." He tried again and this time he did it!

Philip said, "Ft. Sumter has cannons pointing out from every opening of its three stories."

Sweat was pouring down Robert's face and he blinked harder and harder to clear his eyes. "I have to steer carefully so we don't hit a torpedo."

The Planter slowly made its way to the end of the harbor. "Look, Philip, there's the Union Navy's ships makin' the blockade the captain told us about. Quickly, take down the Confederate flags and put up the white flag of truce," Robert ordered. "Here's hopin' they don't fire on us."

Deftly, Robert brought the Planter alongside the Onward. Robert commanded that the flag of the United States of America be raised. "Good morning!" Robert saw pointed rifles and he shouted, "I've brought you this Confederate ship complete with 32 pivot guns, four cannons, a howitzer and a long rifle." The Union sailors boarded the Planter, rifles pointing.