In May 2024, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster signed H. 5042 to create the Robert Smalls Monument Commission.
The commission is tasked with determining the design and location of a monument honoring Robert Smalls on the South Carolina State House grounds.
Smalls was a South Carolina statesman born into slavery in Beaufort, South Carolina, in 1839. Smalls escaped to freedom in 1862 by piloting a Confederate ship out of Charleston Harbor and delivering it to Union forces. In 1868, Smalls was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives and later to the South Carolina Senate. In 1874, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives, where he would serve five terms.
