Journal of a slave

On the ship

When we were brought right next to the ships, we saw others, taken like us, but unlike us, they had energy and were fighting against they’re captors. Then one of the ghosts came down a walkways leading off the ship, but this one carried something. Oh no, a whip. As it started attacking people with the whips, I was felt glad that we weren’t the ones on the receiving end of the whip.  As they’re tortures screams reached us, I closed my eyes and wished I could block my ears as well. Then I felt movement around me and quickly opened my eyes to walk forward. I didn’t want to be left behind.

The next thing I remember is when we were on the ship. It was the most horrible part of our voyage. I think the ship we were on was called ‘Brookes’ or something like that. I was grateful that I had managed to avoid a whipping, but my skin still itched and burned like fire. I was hungry, cold, and thirsty and I was tired to the bone. Then we were put inside the ship. When I looked in, the first thing I thought was that it stunk like the dead. It was much worse inside. As I looked around, all I could see were other people, all chained together. The smell was awful, it was like a mixture of manure, wee, B.O and a couple of dead animals all left together to rot in the sun for a month. The next thing I noticed was the sounds. There were so many people crammed into such a small space that the screaming and crying of the women, children and even men was deafening. Wait…. children! What were children doing, surely they weren’t supposed to be here! When I was put in, I was pushed over and chained to everyone else.  Goodbye daylight.

The days on that ship were pure torture.  I wish I could say that every day was boring and monotonous. I wish I could but I can’t.  Instead the days were filled with thoughts of hunger, pain, tiredness and the need to relieve ones-self. Every time somebody got up to go to the ‘bucket’ where we did our business, they inevitably tripped over somebody due to how tightly packed we were. Then a fight would break out and the ones closest to the ‘bucket’ would get offal and urine spilt all over them, while the rest of us put up with the bruising. Worse, were the times people relieved themselves where they were, not having the energy to get up. We only got one meal a day and it was so small that many people died of starvation. In fact many people also died from the injuries they had sustained, from infected wounds, from being sick because of the horrible conditions, from getting scurvy and from committing suicide.

Over the trip, we were barely let out except to exercise, actually, to dance. We were forced to dance on board the ship when the weather permitted it and if we didn’t dance ‘well’ we were beaten and whipped. Some people took these opportunities on board to ‘jump ship’. This really meant, to jump off. I’m certain that all these people drowned, there’s no way that they could have survived. And of course who could have forgotten the drowning. When they thought that people were too weak, they chained them up to a giant, long chain and they put heavy rocks on the end. Then one by one the people would be dragged overboard, kicking and screaming and they would drown. What a horrible way to die.

WOW!!! This story is going by so quickly. Anyway this is the next part and I'm pretty sure it all makes sense.