Before introduce tonights speakers. Cell phones and other devices should be turned off. Tonight is the sole event, so tonight there is one event, so if i could ask everyone to fold at their chairs at the end and leave them against the closest bookshelf or wall. Last thing is for the q a session after the presentation if i could ask you to step to my left we have a microphone. We record this and cspan is here as well, so for prosperity if we could get this all on recording that would be wonderful. Without further do i would like to introduce tonights author, cate lineberry. Be free or die the amazing story of Robert Smalls escape from slavery to union hero is her second major work. Nominated for the 2014 edgar award for best [inaudible] be free or die chronicles the heroic journey of Robert Smalls who in 1862 sees a confederate steamer and sailed his way from Charleston Harbor to a Union Blockade freeing himself and his family. As all of you will soon see and learn he his mission did not end there later becoming the first black captain of an army shift and enjoy illustrious career as a state and national legislator. Usa today declares be free or die like discovering a national heirloom. Moreover, callous publications commend her ability to elevate option overlooks events of history into the public consciousness. Cate lineberry has made a career as a staff writer and editor at National Geographic. Currently she resides in north carolina. Tonight she is with michael moore, the great great grandson of mr. Smiles. Hes an accomplished businessman and president and ceo of international africanamerican museum in charleston, South Carolina. Please join me in welcoming cate lineberry and michael moore. [applause]. We decided before the nine go into sort of ask the first question, but it feels awkward because its kates event and im sort of supporting her. We had a chance to do this once before and it looks like a great crowd. I hear its a friendly one. [laughter] lots of folks. Its great. We are going to just do a bit of a q a back and forth and in so doing reveal a bit more about the man, Robert Smalls, his life and some other stuff. I think im going to start. So, how did Robert Smalls come across your radar . You have written before, written about anything, why Robert Smalls . Thank you so much, michael, and thank you so much for being here. It means the world to have the support of robert small family. It was important to me in going in this and its been wonderful, so thank you. Im sorry to my friends for National Geographic many of whom are here who i have my back turned to a little bit. Nothing personal, i promise. I was looking for my an idea for my second book and its often a difficult path because you are trying to find a subject that you bring something new to the table within that can be hard given how many books there are out there, but my youngest brother actually sent me an article about Robert Smalls well i was in the process and i was fascinated by him. Particularly fascinated by the idea that i had never heard of him because i had done through my work at National Geographic and the smithsonian in writing for the New York Times war blog had riot read a lot of stories about the civil war and i was amazed to find you was not a veteran figure. 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 seizing the ship and taking his family with him and risking everything after having a life up to being told he was not equal, so i was hooked from their. I felt like there was room in the marketplace for a book about Robert Smalls. Its been a while, non academic book, so thats how i have started with this. Of course, the most obvious question to ask you is what impact does having a great great grandfather whose 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 we are all insecure to certain degrees about a 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 as being a progressive liberal place i can assure you around issues of race in the 70s it wasnt. My brother jeff back there, he and i deployed to prep school in new england during those days, so thank you for coming, but a couple levels. As a child the first it just kind of was, i mean, i grew up with Robert Smalls grandchildren. My grandmother with his granddaughter. She was born 1897. Lived with robert up until heard teenage 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. She was on the planter with robert commandeered it on 1862, but she died in 1959, so my mother grew up with firsthand hearing firsthand stories about robert and she was maybe three, four years old or something and she didnt remember much about that night, but she remembered being scared and remembered just kind of i dont know if to, is right word, but that experience of being very scary and obviously was able to do much more detail about growing up and she ended up with his secretary in washington, so to make a long story short it really sustained me. It filled me with or is supported my sense of selfesteem, my sense as self. Growing up and being attacked around my sense of identity, my race, having someone like Robert Smalls who at copper something who had done big things really helped to counterbalance a lot of that in so that was wonderful and even to this day i am president of a museum in charleston and i would not be president of a museum in charleston if i had not had this connection to Robert Smalls, so its the gift that keeps on giving and i think for me, my challenge is how do i continue that gift to my children. I have four sons. One of who is named robert; correct . Yes, and i just have an obligation and im expressing that obligation to some degree in my work im doing at the museum, but most important around passing that along to my children and hopefully someday my grandchildren. Its been wonderful. So, 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 how the story translated to todays readers. Walk us through that process and why you thought the robert small story which is not a new story, pref setter told, but why that could be relevant today . Certainly people in buford no Robert Smalls name. Thats the town in South Carolina where he was born and raised until he was 12, but there is definitely a marketing decision when you are picking a topic. You want to make sure you are bringing something new to the table, like i mentioned, but there was also in order to really appeal to modernday readers to have so many choices, you want to do something 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 and 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 his story illustrates so much about what really appeals to me as well, so telling small stories during the civil war, which is the focus of the book and then also telling the story because in order to understand his story you have to understand something issues that africanamericans were facing and so many issues that our country was dealing with at the time. I learned so much in the Research Project as process of this book because i had no idea how much the decision it was whether or not the war had gone on for so long so when Robert Smalls actually sailed into freedom with his family he was considered contraband technically speaking. Most click slaves did not see themselves that way and consider themselves free, but the government of the us had not decided what theyre going to do , so i think in order for our country to get past some of the racial issues we are dealing with reactive fully understand the full story and Robert Smalls story, i mean, he was in the center of everything. He was born in buford, which was of course near port rail and that taken over by the union november 1861. It became because when the union took it over the whites in the area fled leaving behind 10000 enslaved men, women and children who did not have food and did not know how to care for themselves. The government had to figure out how to help them and it was the beginning of the first efforts of reconstruction. When he was 12 he moved to charleston, South Carolina and charleston was where South Carolina signed the order of secession. It was the capital of the confederacy, so he was really in the middle of it all and that was definitely an important aspect of the story. There was a picture of you ive seen several times i think he was in the 70s maybe at Tabernacle Church. Can you explain what the relevance had to do with the Tabernacle Church . I have been blessed to have an opportunity to talk about Robert Smalls many many times over the course of my life, hundreds of times. Of the first time i spoke publicly about Robert Smalls was april, 1976, i think i was 13 or 14 years old and had just come back from a trip to dc that everyone does. It was loosely Robert Smalls day in South Carolina that they. There was a big parade and i got a chance to write in a float with the Lieutenant Governor and afterward at Tabernacle Baptist Church where hes buried at an opportunity to unveil the best 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 have never really felt anxious about speaking in public before your credit that i would do it well, but at least so whether that was robert moving his hand over me or whatever, but that was a great opportunity and our family had traveling exhibit, Robert Smalls traveling exhibit that travels around the country as artifacts and papers and models about his life and typically whenever that open someplace i go and do a little talk, so its always wonderful having an opportunity to talk to someone and if that person happens to be connected to you the better. Of the exhibit is actually in buford right now. It is. Tell me about the research process. You found out about him and decided this is someone you would be interested in exploring further. What is the Research Project process like for Something Like this . Im talking to an audience full of a lot of researchers. [laughter] so, i was trained by the best i think that National Geographic many years ago, but the way i started his eye cast a wide net in the first few weeks and months in starting a story and read as much as i can i topic kind of picking the low hanging fruit. I see what i can learn from there and typically from there you find other wrinkles and places where you want to research. I knew that Robert Smalls files were in the National Archives and that was something once he sailed the ship to freedom the union ended up hiring him as a civilian boat pilots. He could have enlisted as i believe the other men who are more that ship or, but dupont to is the admiral needed him as a pilot and the only level Robert Smalls could be enlisted as would be the very lowest, not well respected position and he never would have been allowed to be a boat pilot and he needed him as a boat pilot. He was impressed with his dad navigation skills, so many years smalls had to fight for attention. He fought many battles and in every way he was an enlisted man, but technically he was not, so id knew those files would be very relevant to his story. It was very amazing to see some of the writing, the handwriting in these notes that are still at the archives and then the Hagley Museum in wilmington, delaware, they had because of duponts connection to the story they have a lot of the papers that were delivered when smalls turned over the boat. They have the order boat on the plan or. The confederate passes and for me theres nothing like seeing Something Like that in person. It makes the story so well. Some of the archives in South Carolina also had items and then one of the eye think i mentioned this the last time we spoke, but one of the most upsetting documents i came across was a bill of sale for smalls future wife, hannah. When she was still they had not met yet and it was in the 1840s and she was sold along with her children for 800 to samuel king. On a piece of paper that it brought this history to life and i think it hit home in a way that i had not realized that it would as im sure it would for anyone looking at these documents are going to these archives in 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 strategy bit easier, but did not think there would be people actively preserving smalls story and lo and behold doctor helen bowler moore was michaels mother had done that traveling exhibit and michael, the speaker for the family and takes the subject very seriously and is clearly passionate about it, so that made it easier. When you see the impact, i mean, i can see through your family the Impact Education has had in your lives. Seems like its a something that your mom has her phd and you have your mba, smalls was illiterate until he was in his 20s. Education became very important to him and he saw that as a way to freedom and passed along to his children and i think that was really instilled in the family. Seems like something you all value very much. I try to turn over every leaf i can while doing research. You never know where that step will be. I was determined to find out henrys reaction. Henry 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 crimea during the walk and had just lost it two children from illness and quickly just mentioned that he knew about it. It wasnt a big moment i had hoped to get with a description of his reaction, but it was important for me to know what kind of reaction he had, so you never know where it will come up and at the facsimile newspaper articles were digitized and so much material is digitized 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 because for certain parts of the country there was a strategic effort to mute the story. In 2012, we had a centennial commemoration commemoration in charleston commemorating him taking about to freedom and someone came up to me afterwards very emotional and upset and said im angry with you because Robert Smalls, my history, my ancestors traced to the confederacy and Robert Smalls embarrassed of the confederacy. [laughter] im not quite sure what response he expected of me and i wanted to be sure not to disrespect him personally, but you know. I just wonder if you are doing a book about abe lincoln, there would be in addition to original research there would be other authors that had uncovered things and Robert Smalls probably wasnt a whole lot of that and then this whole influence of sort of meeting again the story. I wondered how that played if at all in your research. Its one of the challenges that i think people are doing nonfiction. We can only write what we can validate i mean you can throw in only so many probably send possibly, which i certainly did. But, it definitely is an issue and the fact that he was illiterate until he was in his 20s. There was not a lot of writings to go back on. s daughter, your great grandmother did a lot of writing for him later in life, so it was deathly something i had to think long and hard about or do i have enough material here to make this book am to life and i hope i did. But, its definitely a consideration and thats why its so important to find as many sources as you can, but you are asking that question and it reminded me of i met one of the defendants who you introduced me to who was the way captain on board the night smalls seized the ship. He had decided he had his fellow white officers would go into town and spend time with their families, which was against confederate orders thus leaving the area open for smalls to do what he did. It was still miraculous he was able to do it, but this allowed it to happen in some way. We have met his descendents and he told me when we interviewed and i talked to him that he was really the first generation to not be embarrassed by the story and hes