Robert Smalls will soon become the first African American to be honored with an individual statue in South Carolina. Smalls is best known for his daring escape during the Civil War, where he disguised himself in Confederate clothing,

South Carolina is preparing to put up its first individual statue for an African American on its Statehouse lawn, honoring a man who put on Confederate clothes in order to steal a slaveholder’s ship and sail his family and a dozen others to freedom during the Civil War.

Or would a more fitting tribute to Smalls be to recognize the statesman who served in the South Carolina House and Senate and the U.S. House after the Civil War? Smalls bought his

South Carolina plans to erect its first-ever statue dedicated to an African American Civil War hero after years of debate.

The best way to sum up Robert Smalls’ life is it was a fight for freedom as a slave, as a pilot and as a statesman.”