The US Navy has renamed the guided missile destroyer USS Chancellorsville as the USS Robert Smalls, in honor of a Black sailor and statesman who was born into slavery. Robert Smalls was conscripted into the Confederate military during the Civil War, but he piloted the steamer Planter out of Charleston harbor and turned it over to the US Navy. He went on to serve as a brigadier general of the South Carolina militia and as a member of the US House of Representatives. The renaming of the ship is part of the military's effort to remove names that commemorate the Confederacy.
Photo Credit: Zoltan Tasi
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