All of us are born with potential, but not all of us are born with opportunity. Still, the best stories are the ones that manage to take the hand they’re dealt and transform them into something remarkable. Let me tell you, this is one of those stories. Hi my name is Gabe Bauer and this is Top Shelf History, where we combine great stories with great drinks.
This is the Beaufort Bulldog. It is the cocktail I have made for you today based on the unbelievable life of Robert Smalls, a man who escaped the chains of slavery to become a war hero who set his fellow slaves free.
From the beginning of his life, Robert had to struggle. In 1839, Robert was born into slavery, like his mother Lydia, and he spent his early years working in the house of his master in the hot, muggy coastal town of Beaufort, South Carolina. As he grew older, his master, a man named John McKee, began to see that young Robert could be more useful to him in his shipping enterprise than at home, and so, at the ripe age of 12, Robert moved with his master to Charleston to begin working on the docks. It was grueling work; he was asked to be a lamplighter, sail maker, rigger, and Stevedore foreman. By the time Robert had reached adulthood, he’d become a master sailor and expert navigator of the coastal waters of South Carolina and Georgia. Something that turned out to be extremely helpful in the future.
But not everything about the work was fatiguing. In between the long, laborious hours working the docks of the southern traders, Robert caught the eye of a woman named Hannah Jones. Hannah was herself born into slavery and worked in Charleston as a hotel maid. Though she was 12-14 years Robert’s senior, she was enamored by the brash and hopeful sailor. And he, with her. So despite their age difference, their position, and the fact that Robert was only 17, they married in 1856 and had 3 children together–though his only son, Robert Jr., was lost to smallpox as a toddler.
Robert knew he was meant for more than the captivity that had been forced on him from his birth. That captivity wasn’t meant for any man. So, he set out to find a way to free himself and his family. He’d heard that there were some who managed to buy their freedom from their masters. But when he began negotiating with his and Hannah’s masters, he saw the price was too steep, basically impossible, to pay. There was only one way they’d taste freedom. He and his family would have to escape.
While they were waiting for their opportunity, the delegation of South Carolina was knocking over dominoes. It was 1860, and they had seceded from the Union. 11 other states quickly followed and took up arms against the people they’d once called countrymen. Robert heard the first shots of war as Confederates took Ft. Sumter from the Union troops in Charleston in 1861, and soon after Robert was pushed into a Confederate uniform and onto the battlefield. Well… the battleocean, serving aboard the CSS Planter–formerly a cotton steamer, now it was being used to transport ammunition.
Despite all the time he’d been searching for a way to escape, Robert was instead being used as a pawn to defend his own captivity. He couldn’t stand for it. He wouldn’t! On May 12, 1862, one year after he’d been conscripted into the Confederate Navy, Robert and his fellow black crewmates saw an opportunity. The CSS Planter was docked in South Carolina, her officers were going ashore. Since they were going to be gone, they thought why not invite our families onto the boat for the evening? Just a few hours. The officers agreed.
It was the moment they’d been waiting for. They were going to escape. Right then and there. It was freedom or death. Robert was an expert sailor afterall, he knew the coastline and the Confederate Navy’s tendencies and signals. They could do it. And guys, they DID. They departed the shoreline, and passed by checkpoint after checkpoint, patrols, and forts all under Confederate authority and none of them suspected a thing. Robert seamlessly navigated through the waters. When they finally approached the Union blockade, the men lowered the Confederate flag, and raised a white banner.
He was a Union hero, now. And a free one.
But, he wasn’t done fighting. Nope, Robert joined a coalition to lobby President Lincoln to allow free blacks to serve in the Union Army, and was successful. Under a new flag, he returned to the coastal waters of South Carolina and fought in 17 battles. He was even made captain of the USS Planter, the very same ship he had captured. With the compensation he’d earned for everything he accomplished during the war, he returned to Beaufort and purchased John McKee’s old home.
He never stopped fighting. When he laid down his arms, he took up politics, serving 4 terms as a delegate of the Republican party and establishing a “black political paradise” in his district. He faced strong opposition from the white Democrats who disliked him, but he had learned a long time ago not to let the opinion of those opposing him stop him from achieving his dreams, and he remained active in political life until the end of the Reconstruction.
A slave. A sailor. A captain. A war hero. A political leader. And an icon. What a man! Robert, you deserve a good drink.
To start the Beaufort Bulldog, we will put in 2 oz of South Carolina made Palmetto Whisky. When I found this at my liquor store, I thought, “A whiskey straight from the Palmetto State? Nah, it seems too good to be true.” But this whiskey has some nice notes. There are layers between the smoky sweetness that allows for some complexity and I feel is an excellent base for a drink to honor Robert Smalls. Then, we will follow that up with a 2 oz of Pineapple Juice. Why pineapple? Well, Robert was known for his expertise as a sailor, and I felt that a delicious tropical drink would be just the kind of refreshing beverage any sailor would yearn for while aboard their ships for months at a time. We will then follow that up with 1 oz of Grand Marnier. Now, Grand Marnier is a delicious combination of cognac and orange liqueur. So it will give us some citrus notes while at the same time giving us the bright complexity of cognac. Then, we just pop on our shaker and give it a few shakes before straining into our glass here. We’ve got it filled with ice and we’ll top it with some club soda to dilute some of the sweetness while also providing some needed bubliness. And there you have it, the Beaufort Bulldog.
