Robert Smalls: Tales of the Talented Tenth, no. 3

Tales of the Talented Tenth #3

by Joel Christian Gill, Qiana Whitted (Foreword)

"Joel Christian Gills shows how ordinary people fight for our collective liberation and whose stories are not often at the forefront of our historical consciousness.” —Ibram X. Kendi, author of  How to Be an Antiracist

Do you know the story of the slave who sailed himself to freedom? For the third book in the bestselling Tales of the Talented Tenth series, Joel Christian Gill brings Robert Smalls to life by telling the true story of the enslaved African who pulled off one of the most daring and largest heists of the Civil War. Come along for the adventure as Robert earns a job working for the C.S.S. Planter , escapes to freedom, goes on to become a first-generation Black politician, and makes history by writing and leading the passage of legislation that led to the United States’ first free and compulsory public school system.

Tales of the Talented Tenth is a historical comic series that focuses on the adventures of amazing African Americans in action.

Genres: History, Graphic Novels, Nonfiction, Biography, Historical, African American, War

120 pages, Paperback

First published May 3, 2021

About the author

Joel Christian Gill is a cartoonist and historian who speaks nationally on the importance of sharing stories. He wrote the words and drew the pictures in Fast Enough: Bessie Stringfield’s First Ride
(published by Lion Forge, 2019) and the award-winning graphic novel series Strange Fruit: Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History, as
well as, Tales of The Talented Tenth from Fulcrum Publishing. He has worked for diverse clients including the People’s United Party of Belize,
NBC, the Boston Globe and his has written for The Huffington Post. He is currently Associate Professor of Illustration at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Gill has dedicated his life to creating stories to build connections with readers through empathy, compassion, and ultimately humanity. He received his MFA from Boston University and his BA from
Roanoke College.

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robert Smalls was an amazing man. This children's graphic novel does a good job of introducing him, whetting my appetite to find out more about him. Indeed, I spent a long time reading about Smalls on the internet immediately after finishing the last page.

A slave in Charleston, South Carolina, during the U.S. Civil War, Smalls led one of the most audacious escapes from slavery during the course of the war, and that was only the beginning of a long and distinguished career in military service and politics that the book only has time to hint at. A real-life adventure story that should excite children about history.

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this story! Joel Christian Gill is an exceptional visual storyteller.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this in a Goodreads giveaway. This is the first thing I've read by the author.

I'm a fan of comic books and good stories, if I get to learn something in the process even better. This is an easy read about a young man who escapes to freedom with 13 other slave during the Civil War. It was well written and the art went well while telling the story. Well worth the read if you like history and comic books.

[BiblioBickie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set during reconstruction, a South Carolina Black man tells a northern friend the story of Robert Smalls and how he piloted a group of enslaved people to freedom aboard the Confederate ship, The Planter.
Depiction of a whipping, family separation, a shooting (imagined). Use of "Negro" and a blackface emoji to depict the n-word. An understandably angry traitor amongst them is depicted as someone who should be forgiven and given a possibility of redemption.

[Zahnii (Suzanne) Artis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had never heard this story of Robert Smalls and his escape via taking a “rebel” ship called the Planter. It makes me want to learn more about the Civil War which I have often avoided due to its polarization and raw brutal racism.

Liked learning a new word: Kuliba which was “ whispered by the people who could fly.” “…kuliba means that we will fly north to our freedom.”

[Déjà · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s some updated language that the book could use, and I didn’t like the picture of the Black person used in place of the N-word.

Altogether, the story was told pretty well for younger readers, and was a perfect length to keep their attention. I’m really glad this type of genre is being told through a comic book style.

[Brigid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Smalls was enslaved in the South until he grabbed the opportunity to hijack a Confederate ship, load it up with friends and family, and escape to the North. A fascinating story that should be better known.

[Secret Stacks]

This comic was discussed on Episode 61 of The Secret Stacks.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story of Robert Smalls in a graphic novel.

[Ron Maskell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great to read. Great subject matter.

[wildct2003 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent story and pictures

[Andrew Dittmar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joel Christian Gill and I are both graduates of the same small Virginia liberal arts college so I feel bizarrely proud of how excellent this book is.

[A. Housewife · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. Great graphics and story. And it's true. And educational. I want to read more in this series

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really enjoyed! Plan to add to the classroom library.

[Rachel Auer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This comic book tells the story of the formerly enslaved Robert Smalls. He was a strong-willed, defiant, smart man who devised a plan that would get him and 13 others across into Union territory with little to no suspicion, because they went via water instead of on horseback.

I didn't know anything about Robert Smalls before. This was an easy and entertaining way to learn about him. I liked the storytelling device of someone telling another person about the story, but I did think it was a little cheesy and convenient the way we got into it in the prologue.

This is a book geared toward children/young audience, but this book didn't censor itself too much. There were honest representations of conversations. We didn't get a romanticized retelling of his life. There was no super human aspect, which the foreword clearly talked about. The book even had a stand-in for the n word when it would've been used. Instead of avoiding the word, there was a drawing of a black person's face but drawn in the style that represents the racist depictions people have used when showing black people.

I really liked this book. It's original. It's well-produced. It's informative.
I'm definitely going to be donating this book to a classroom so that children of the next generation can read all about Robert Smalls.