This one was too long. I just couldn't find it in my heart to cut it. I tried to edit it, but I loved every piece of the story. I loved laying out all the stakes and danger piece by piece, Ocean's 11-style. Honestly, a few more hours of script editing would've done the trick, but on this show, WE LIVE ON THE EDGE.
The house where Smalls grew up and later owned is still there in Beaufort, SC. This is the second mention of that city on this show - the first was in Episode 18 - The Raid. The Union had captured that entire spit of land early on and held it, setting up a colony of sorts for the newly-freed, where they could learn how to live their lives and build a future with new skills and education. It was working, too. But the failure of Reconstruction at the hands of a corrupt and indifferent administration in Washington ensured that vast swaths of the South would fall back into the hands of those who had corrupted it in the first place.
I say this often, but this is another one of those "why isn't this a movie?" stories, except this one will be: https://join.legionm.com/robert-smalls-defiant/ It's a fan-funded movie, but everyone should be a fan of Robert Smalls after this episode.
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