Letters
Dear Family
Well I’m alive!!! As I saw the slave boat on the horizon my body filled with fear. I
was confused and scared wondering if I would live or die. They virtually “threw”
us on to the boat. We were so cramped together there must have been at least
60 slaves on with me. I could barely move. I felt sick to the stomach. I was hurt
with cuts all along my arm but also hurt inside.
When they let us off the boat I was slightly relieved but also starving. At least
there was fresh air. After a few days I got homesick but most of all I felt angry at
whoever had done this.
D
Dear Benjamin Spencer
You happily took me into your company although I was unwilling to
join you. Whilst you live in a ‘palace’ and eat finery I shrink under a damp and
cold ship awaiting the news of our travels. I am uninformed of where my life will
now continue. As the ship rocks uncontrollable side to side and the wind howls
across the deck we wait longingly for our meal however small and pitiful it may
be.
People are ill in our cramped hold and there is no use of hygiene anywhere. When
we were taken the chains were clamped around our wrists and we were whipped
to make us move, no one asked just hit us a smile on their uncaring faces.
The ocean is like an endless blue plain which looms unceasing before our
quivering bodies. No one speaks to us although we wouldn’t understand.
Everyone in the hold is as scared with no outside communications.
Yours sincerely
One of your slaves
Dear Owner of the Cannon Hall ship,
Why do you keep us like this?
We are all suffering and you are the cause. All we want is to be free. We are all
dying and keeping us chained up like this is not fair. How would you like it if you
were like us?
Please let us free.
J
P.S. Please think about it.
Dear Family
I just want to let you know what I’m feeling. I mostly feel that my capturer has
just ripped a piece of my heart out which is my family. I just feel like I’ll never
see you again. I’m dreading what will happen next. I just hope I don’t die and I
get to see you before this happens.
I don’t know where I am, I feel like I’m in the bottom of a ship, all I can hear are
swords scraping, men chatting and laughing. It is so annoying.
I hate it, here’s what happened I was walking down the street and this man
(sailor I think) just snatched me. He came from nowhere this cart pulled up
straight away and the sailor got in, he drove off somewhere to a ship, I think it
was called the Cannon Hall. He threw me down in the hold of the ship and left me
with nothing. That’s all I know for now. Please don’t worry.
Miss you loads!
Love
J xx
Dear Family
When I got captured I felt scared and angry. I didn’t know where they were
taking me when they put me on a big boat in a cramped space, rocking all over
and crashing into the sides. I got a lot of cuts, bruises and splinters from the
wood. I felt lost and sad. The women were allowed to walk around the boat but
the men weren’t. I don’t think it was fair, how would they like it if they were
captured and made work.
From
L
Dear Family
I am on a strange boat and I am missing you. I am feeling very scared and a bit
ill; I don’t know what is going to happen. I have been on this boat for days and I
have only had a bit of hard bread and water.
I just wanted to see you and talk to you. I am so hungry and we can’t have
anything else until the morning. I am missing you.
Love from
K xxxxx
Dear Family
I have been captured by Benjamin Spencer and we are in the bottom of the
Cannon Hall Ship. It is very crowded and there are girls, boys, men and women,
we are all tied up, but the women are allowed to walk about because Benjamin is
not scared of the women. We are all very unhealthy and a lot of us are dyeing
and getting ill. We arrived in the Caribbean and we were sold but a lot of us were
in very poor shape after the dreadful journey. And people didn’t want us.
Love from K xx
Dear Friends and family
This is your daughter and friend I’m writing to tell you that I have been captured
by some rotten people. I don’t know where I am, some where with great big
buildings. I am near land; my writing isn’t very neat because the boat is very
rocky. I can see the buildings they look to be a lot nicer than where we live but I
probably won’t be living there! I’m much squashed here! Also we don’t get the
things we need.
Hope to be home again.
A xx
Dear Family
I am missing you all; I felt lots when they took me. I went out to the shops and
someone came up behind me and just took me, I didn’t know what to do. They
put me in a ship and sailed off. I couldn’t do anything. They finally stopped the
ship and took me off and sold me. I felt angry because it is just cruel to people
that they take away people that haven’t done anything and I am one of them.
I thought they were going to put me in the sea but they didn’t. I wish they had
now I’ve been sold! I hope I see you soon, but I don’t think I will.
Yours sincerely
H
Miss you very much. Xxxxxx
Dear All
I feel scared and confused. I have no idea where I’m going. Other people on the
ship speak a different language or are dying. I fear I may not return.
From
J
Dear Family,
I really miss you all, it is terrible. I am very weak and I really feel upset and
angry. They treat us very bad and don’t give us enough food. I really miss all the
familiar faces and all my possessions. Right now I am lying in the dark, it is so
terrible…..
All my love
F
Dear Family
I fear that I may not see you because I have been captured by some strange
white people they just snatched me!! I felt scared but confused. I tried to run as
fast as a cheetah but they caught me and chained me up so it is impossible to
escape!
J
To my dear family
I’m in a state of despair not knowing what will happen to me! My eyes are seeing
scary white men marching to and fro across the decks. Disease surrounds me and
I have become ill and this is why I write today. I feel certain degree of hate to my
captors as I blame them for my illness and my misery.
Love from
J
Dear Family
I am in a different country, I have no freedom. I just walk down the road and lots
of people jumped out at me. I didn’t fight back because they would have got me
anyway when they put me and others in cages I felt like I should have fought
back. They feed us once a day. I hope I see you again.
Love A xxx
Dear Family
I want to come home. I have been captured. They took me and locked me away;
eventually we got took onto a ship and forced into cages. I feel so bad.
I don’t know where I am going; sometimes I think I am going to die. The
conditions are so awful.
It is horrible watching other people die that could happen to me. They won’t let
us come out!
J
Dear Captor
I feel angry, furious, confused and many other feelings towards you. You have no
right to capture us; we haven’t done anything to you. When your companions
captured me I wanted to kill them and now I want to kill you. I want to capture
you and your strange white people as a slave. We all hate you. You have no right
to do this.
Yours sincerely
J
Dear Family
1775
I have been captured by some people I have never seen before. I have been put
in chains and was knocked out when I came round I found myself looking at the
sky. I tried to move but the chains made feet like a solid molecule inside a piece
of glass trying to escape and I knew I couldn’t. Exploring the ship I found that
there are only 4-5 sailors. If the men were free, the sailors would be very scared
of them. That’s why they keep the men locked up. The sailors aren’t scared of the
women. I felt very scared and angry. I’m sorry I don’t think I’ll see you again.
Love M
Dear Family
As you know I was captured, I am writing to you to warn you about slavery. If
you ever see a boat appear on the beach, run for your lives, as if you don’t you
will be captured. My first solution would be to toughen the women so if you do
happen to get captured you can all fight for your lives. Slavery is dreadful so take
my advice.
From your beloved son
O
Dear Mum and Dad
I am so angry with the owner of the ship. I am stuck in a little room I miss you so
much I want to come home but I can’t move from this little room. Please will you
come and rescue me they are taking me to the Caribbean.
From
V
To my dear family
I have arrived in a nothing-but-strange place. My task is only to ask
questions, for I am scared of being eaten or being buried alive. Though I’m trying
to escape, a white man is following me and he is very mean-looking. The other
day I was walking to the top of the deck when I saw the most horrific thing. The
white men were wiping blood off the deck!
I started to wonder that very day if I was ever going to make it alive. My worries
will carry on, till I’ve finished my plot to escape. I’m scared, so very scared. I am
missing you so very much. That much, I feel sick! I will write again soon.
Yours sincerely
E
To my Captor
I feel very angry because there was no reason to catch me. I am innocent. I just
want to know why you have taken me. My family is going to miss me and it’s
horrible to be kept on a boat for so long in so little space. I am worried because I
don’t know where you are taking me and why. Please write back to tell me why
you are keeping me so ill and cramped.
A (slave)