Sambo's Grave is the burial site of a black

cabin boy A cabin boy or ship's boy is a boy or young man who waits on the officers and passengers of a ship, especially running errands for the captain. The modern merchant navy successor to the cabin boy is the steward's assistant. Duties Cabin boys ...

slave Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

unconsecrated ground ''Unconsecrated'' is the debut studio album by Australian deathcore band The Red Shore, released on 8 November 2008. It was originally set for a 22 September release through Siege of Amida Records, but was delayed. A limited edition was released ...

in a field near the small village of Sunderland Point,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, England. Sunderland Point was a port, serving cotton, sugar and

slave ship Slave ships were large cargo ships specially built or converted from the 17th to the 19th century for transporting Slavery, slaves. Such ships were also known as "Guineamen" because the trade involved human trafficking to and from the Guinea ( ...

s from the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

and North America, which declined after

Glasson Dock Glasson Dock, also known as Glasson, is a village in Lancashire, England, south of Lancaster at the mouth of the River Lune. In 2011, it had a population of around 600. History Glasson was originally a small farming and fishing community (whic ...

was opened in 1787. It is a very small community only accessible via a narrow road, which crosses a salt

marsh In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p More in genera ...

and is cut off at high tide.

History

In the early 18th century Sunderland Point was a port for

Lancaster Lancaster may refer to: Lands and titles *The County Palatine of Lancaster, a synonym for Lancashire *Duchy of Lancaster, one of only two British royal duchies *Duke of Lancaster *Earl of Lancaster *House of Lancaster, a British royal dynasty ...

serving ships too large to sail up to the town. According to the ''Lonsdale Magazine'' of 1822, which appears to rely on the then

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information from people, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people who pa ...

, Sambo had arrived around 1736 from the West Indies as a servant to the captain of an unnamed ship: It has also been suggested that Sambo may have died from a disease to which he had no natural immunity, contracted from contact with Europeans. He was buried in unconsecrated ground (as he was not a Christian) on the weatherbeaten shoreline of

Morecambe Bay Morecambe Bay is an estuary in north-west England, just to the south of the Lake District National Park. It is the largest expanse of intertidal mudflats and sand in the United Kingdom, covering a total area of . In 1974, the second largest ga ...

Plaque

With the opening of Glasson Dock in 1787, trade ships deserted Sunderland Point and it became a sea-bathing place and holiday venue. Sixty years after the burial, a retired headmaster of Lancaster boys' grammar school, James Watson, heard the story and raised money from summer visitors to the area for a memorial, to be placed on the unmarked grave. Watson, who was the brother of the prominent Lancaster slave trader, William Watson, also wrote the epitaph that now marks the grave (note the use of ''ſ'', the

long s The long s, , also known as the medial ''s'' or initial ''s'', is an Archaism, archaic form of the lowercase letter , found mostly in works from the late 8th to early 19th centuries. It replaced one or both of the letters ''s'' in a double-''s ...

character, and the eccentric and inconsistent spelling typical of the time): The present plaque is a modern replica, replacing the original which had been stolen. This is explained by a smaller plaque, set immediately above the main plaque, which reads:

Preservation

Official signposts on Sunderland Point define the grave and locality as a tourist attraction. The grave almost always bears flowers or stones painted by local children. The grave was enclosed by a low stone wall in 2019 and Chris Drury's "Horizon Line Chamber" was built on the approach path.

References

External links

*
Sunderland Point and Samboo's Grave"Sambo" 1657, antedates OED 1704-The Graves of Slaves & other Black People in 18th C Britain
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sambos Grave History of Lancaster Burials in Lancashire 18th-century slaves Samboo Year of birth unknown