The if could i just ask everyone to foldunder their chairs at the end of the event and lean them against the klose bookshelf or wall. That would be greatly appreciated. And last thing is for the q a session after the presentation, if could ask you to step to the side to my left right here. We have a like, microphone because we have cspan here. Eight u aid like to introduce the author, cate line berry. Her sect major work following the secret rescue, and untold story of American Nurses and medics behind nazi lines. Nominated for the 2014 edgar award for the best fact crime and number one wall street journal best seller. Robert small in 1862 sees a confederates steamer sail from charleston harbour through a union blockade, fleeing himself and his family but his mission did not end there. He would later become the first black captain of an army ship and enjoy, usa today clears reed reading the book is like recovering a lost heirloom. Count look human countless publications cate line berry has made a career as a staff writer and editor the National Geographic and smithsonian magazine. She currentlyses in raleigh, North Carolina, and she is with michael moor, the great, great grandson of mr. Smalls. Mr. Moore is an accomplished businessman and the international africanamerican museum in charleston, carolina. [applause] we decided before that im going to sort of ask the first question but it feels awkward. This is cates event and im support of supporting her so i just want to do my part to welcome yall here. Its great. Ive had we had a chance to do this once before and this looks like a great crowd, and i hear its a friendly one. Lots of folks that know herself. Were going to just do a little bit of a q a, back and forth, and in so doing i think reveal a bit more about the man, Robert Smalls, his life, and some other stuff. So, i think im going to start. How did you how did robert signaled come across your radar and you have you could have written about anything. Why Robert Smalls . Well, thank you for being here. It means the world to me to have the support of Robert Smalls family in writing this back. It was very important to me in going into this and its just been wonderful. So thank you. Then sorry to my friend from national igraphic. Many of them who are here who i have my back turned to a little bit. Nothing personal, i promise. Was looking for my second an idea for the second book, and its often a rick task because you are trying to find a subject that youre bringing something new to the table with and that can be hard, given how many books there. Are my young brother sent me an article about Robert Smalls and i was fascinated by him, and particularly by the idea i never heard of him because i had done through the work at national igraphic and smithsonian and writing for thetimetime civil war blog had wrote a lot ofs about the civil bar and amazed to find he was not a better known figure. So in looking at that article i decided i wanted to know more. I wanted to know what compelled him to take such a great risk in stealing this seizing this ship and taking his family with him and risking everything after having a life of being told he was not equal. So i was hook from there. I felt like there was a room in the marketplace for a book about Robert Smalls, and a nonacademic become for a mass audience so thats how i got started. And of course, the most obvious question to ask you is what impact is having a greatgreatgreatgrandfather who is an American Hero have on you growing up. Its almost hard to know where to start on that question. From sort of a metaphysical level it has been profound in the sense that as a young person, you grow up and i think were all insecure to a certain degree about the variety of different things. I had the benefit of growing up in the 70s in boston, which while boston, massachusetts, has sort of the branding a being a progressive liberal kind of place, can assure you that around issues of race in the 70s it wasnt. Ill acknowledge my brother everback there, he and i deployed to prep school in new england back during those days, so thank you for coming. But so a couple levels. As a child, at first i really it just kind of just was. Grew up with Robert Smalls again, hi grandmother was his granddaughter. She was born in 1897. And so lived with robert for up until her teen years, and further roberts daughter lived with my mother and my grandparents for the last 22 years of her life, and she had the benefit of living a long, long life. He was on the planter when robert commandeered it on may 13, 1862, but died in 1959. So, my mother grew up with firsthand hearing, firsthand stories about robert and she didnt she was maybe four, three years old and didnt remember much about that night but she remembered being scared and remembered just kind of the i dont know if trauma is the right wore word but the experience of being scary, and then obviously was able to be much more detailed about growing up and she ended up with his secretary in washington and everything. So to make a long story short, it really sustained me. It filled me with supported my sense of selfesteem, my sense of self. Growing up and being attacked around my sense of identity, my ethnicity, my race, having somebody like Robert Smalls, who had accomplished something, who had done big things against enormous odds, really helped to counterbalance a lot of that and so that was wonderful. Then even to this day, im president of a museum in charleston. Would not be president of a museum in charleston had i not had this connection to Robert Smalls. And so it the gift that keeps on giving, and i think for me, my challenge is how do i continue that gift to my children . Ive got four sons, and one of his his names is robert. Thats right. So i just think its i feel an obligation. Im expressing that obligation to some degree in my work im doing at the museum, but most important, around passing that long to my children and hopefully some day my grandchildren. So its been wonderful. So, how when you were thinking about Robert Smalls and thinking about, thats a cool story to some degree there had to be something of a business decision about relevance and about how the story translated to todays readers. Walk us through that process and why you thought the Robert Smalls story, which is not a new story, perhaps an undertold story but not a new story. Why that could be relevant today. Certainly people in buford know his name. That is the town in South Carolina where he was born and raised until he was 12. But, yeah, definitely a marketing decision, business decision when youre picking a topic. You want to make sure youre bringing something new to the table, like i mentioned, but there was also i think in order to really appeal to modern day readers who have so many choices, you want to do something that is relevant to their lives today, and you cant pick up a newspaper or turn on the tv without seeing some issue regarding race in our country. It permeates every aspect of our society. Robert smalls story is extraordinary on its own, but if you combine it with sort of the plight of africanamericans during the civil war, it illustrates his story illustrates so much and that is what really appealed to me as well. Telling small story during the civil war, which is the focus of the book, and then telling the story in order to understand his story you have to understand so many issued that africanamericans were facing, and so many issues that our country was dealing with at the time. I learned so much in the Research Process of this book because i had no idea how much of the decision it was whether or not to free the slaves for so long. The war had gone on for are so long soft when Robert Smalls sailed to freedom with his family he was considered contrabands tick particularly speaking technically speaking. Most slaves considered themselves free but the government of the United States has nod decided what they were going to do. So in order for our country to get past or heal from some of the racial issue years dealing with, we have to fully understand the full story and Robert Smalls story he was in the center of everything. He was born in buford, of course, near port rail sound and that wag taken of by the union in november 1861, and became because when the union took it over, the whites in the area fled, leaving behind 10,000 enslaved men, women and children who had no food and who did not know how to care for themselves. Never been allowed to. So, the government had to figure out how to help them and it was the beginning of the first efforts of reconstruction happened there. And then of course when he was 12, he made it to charleston, South Carolina and charleston was the place with the state of South Carolina signed the order nance of secession, the spiritual capital of the confederacy so she was in the middle of it all and that was an important aspect the story. Theres a picture of you ive seen several times in the 70s maybe at tabernacle church. You explain what the relevance to Robert Smalls is of the church. Well, ive been blessed to have an opportunity to talk about Robert Smalls many, many, many times over the course of my life. Hundreds of times. But the first time that i spoke publicly about Robert Smalls was april 1976. I think i was 13 or 14 years old, just come back from a trip to d. C. , the eighth grade trip that everybody does to d. C. And it was loosely sort of Robert Smalls day in South Carolina that day. A big parade. Got a chance to ride on a float with the lieutenant governor. Then afterwards, Tabernacle Baptist Church where he is buried i got an opportunity to unveil the bust of him there. And its interesting, i remember being quite terrified up to the moment, thinking about speaking in front of people, and something literally sort of washed over me as im sitting on this stage, and sort of took that anxiety away and ive never really felt anxious about speaking in public. Doesnt mean i do it well but i so, whether that was robert sort of moving his hand over me or whatever, but that was a great opportunity, and our family has a traveling exhibit, Robert Smalls traveling exhibit that travels around the country, has artifacts and papers and some models and the like about his life, and typically whenever that opens someplace, go and do a little talk. So its always wonderful having an opportunity to talk about somebody youre proud about and if that person happens to be connected to you, all the better. The exhibit is actually in buford right now. It is. Ten e tell me about the Research Process. You found out about him. You decided that this is someone you would be interested in perhaps exploring further. Whats the Research Process like for Something Like this . Well, talking to an audience full of a lot of researchers, but i was trained by the very best, i think, at National Geographic, many years ago, but the way i start is i cast as wide of a net as i possibly can in the first few weeks and months of starting a story. I read as much as i can on a topic. Kind of picking the lowhanging fruit, and see what i can learn from there. Then typically from there you find other angles of places where you want to research. Knew that Robert Smalls pension files were in the national archives, and that was something that once he sail the ship to freedom, the union ended up hiring him as a civilian boat pilot. He could have been enlisted as i believe the other men who were onboard the ship were, but dupont, daniel dupont, the admiral that took the ship from smalls, needed him as pilot, and the only level that Robert Smalls could be enlisted as would be boy, which is the very lowest, not a very wellrespected position and certainly never would have been allowed to be a boat pilot and he needed him as a boat pilot. Was very impressed with his navigational skills and everything else. So for many years smalls had to fight for a pension . He served in numerous battles throughout the war, in all in every way he was a enlest enlists man but i knew the pension files would be very reality. It was amazing to see the hand writhing in these noted that are still at the archives, and then the human in wilmington, delware bushings due upons connection to the story, they have a lot of the papers delivered when smalls turned over the boat him that have the order book that was on the planner. They have confederate passes, and for me theres nothing like seeing Something Like that in person. It just makes the story so real. Some of the museum some of the archives in South Carolina also had items and then one of the i think i mentioned this the last time we spoke. One of the most sort of upsetting documents i came across was a bill of sale for smalls future wife, hand narks when she was they had not met yet and was in 1840, and he she was sold along with her children for 800 to samuel kingman, he new owner, and seeing that on a piece of paper with dust brought this history to life in a way that reading about it just cant. As a white person doing the story, i think it hit home in a way that i hadnt realized it would. As im sure it would for anyone who was looking at these documents. So, going to these archives, finding as much material, i never in my wildest dreams thought i would find family members that i could count on for this book. With my world war ii story i thought it was a little bit easier, but certainly did not think there would be people actively preserving smalls story and lo and behold, dr. Hellen moor, michaels mother, had done a traveling exhibit, michael is the peek for the family, now the president of the museum in charleston and takes the subject seriously and is clearly passionate about it. That made it easier, too. When you see the impact. I can see through your family the impact that education has had in your lives, seems like its something that your mom had her ptl, you have your mba. Smalls was illiterate until his 20s he saw education as way to freedom and passed than on to his children and that was realin stilled in the family. Something you value very much. So i tried to turn over every leaf i can when doing research, and you never know what thats going to be. Was really determined to find out henry mckeys reaction. Henry mckey was smalls owner. I wanted to find out his reaction to smalls seizing the planter, and there was not a lot of information out there, but in a family diary that was published, there was a small mention that he was working in a confederate hospital in columbia doing the war and just lost two children from illness, and quickly just mentioned that he knew about it. So, it wasnt the big awe ahha moment i hoped to get but it was important to know what kind of reaction he had. You never know where thats going to come up and the fact that so many newspaper articles are being digitized and so much material is being digitized now, that really helps a lot. Saves hours and hours of time. Can i ask a followup . Yes. So, part of the reason why the Robert Smalls story is not better known is because, for certain parts of the country, there was a strategic effort to mute the story. Somebody m2012 we had a commemoration of smalls taking the bode for freedom and someone came up to me afterward very emotional, very upset, im angry with you because Robert Smalls my history, my ancestors trace to confederacy and Robert Smalls embarrassed the confederacy. Im not quite sure what response he expected of me, and i wanted to be sure not to disrespect him personally, but i but i just wonder, if you were doing a book about abe lincoln there we be in addition to sort of original research, owl kind of other authors who uncovered things and, and witch Robert Smalls probably wasnt a whole lot of that and then this whole influence of sort of muting, again. I wonder how that played, if at all in your research. Oh, no. Its one of the challenges i think people who are doing nonfiction we can only write what we can validate and really you can throw in only so many probablies and possiblies and so which i certainly did, but, yeah, definitely an issue, and the fact he was illiterate until his 20s. Not a lot of writings to go back on. His daughter, your greatgrandmother, did a lot of his writing for him later in life. So it was definitely something i had to think long and hard about do. Have enough material their make this book come to life and i hope i did. But its definitely a consideration and that is why its so important to find as many sources as you possibly can. But in your asking that question, it reminds me of, id met one of the descend tents descendents of the captain of the ship at the time. He decided to go into town and spend time with their family, which was against confederate orders. Thus leaving the area open for smalls to do what he did. Somakeous he so miraculous he was able to do this, and he told me when entered view him he was the first generation to not be embarrassed by the story, and he is very open to playing to his role and came to our reading in charleston, and has embraced it, but i think that speaks volumes to the legacy of the south and of the division in the country in some ways. So my question back to you would be about the descendents and what it was like for you to meet and who detroit economy what it was like to meet them. Its been really surreal to meese the descendents of other people. Met this gentleman, royal, i met a descendent of the family that owned the planter. I met a greatgreat grandson of samuel f. Dupont in philadelphia at a museum event, and i sort of think of it abstractly to some degree. 150 years ago, all those peo