AllMovie

The conclusion covers the Civil War and Reconstruction while profiling a resourceful and courageous South Carolina slave named Robert Smalls, who learned nautical skills as a teenager. They proved useful in 1862, when he commandeered a Confederate ship and sailed it to freedom. Later, he was elected to Congress. Smalls' story was unusual, and in any case white Southerners soon crushed Reconstruction. But, says historian James Horton, it did provide blacks with "a ray of hope" for the future.