Smalls died a free man in the same Beaufort, South Carolina, property where he had been born a slave. By the time of his death in 1915, however, Smalls had become a U.S. Representative, a war hero ...

Robert Smalls made a daring sea escape during the Civil War as a slave and went on to serve five terms in Congress as a Representative from South Carolina.

Retropolis The Gulf of Mexico’s long history of colonization and varying names. Long before Trump expressed interest in a name change, conquerors have battled to claim the wealth of its rich waters.

Colonizers have always coveted the Gulf of Mexico: its trade winds, ports, fish and shellfish, its deep pockets of oil and gas far beneath a basin floor of crashed, tectonic plates. “This superb ...