Sambo's Grave is the burial site of a black cabin boy or slave on unconsecrated ground in a field near the small village of Sunderland Point, Lancashire, England. Sunderland Point was a port, serving cotton, sugar and slave ships from the West Indies and North America, which declined after Glasson Dock was opened in 1787. It is a very small community only accessible via a narrow road, which crosses a salt marsh and is cut off at high tide.
In the early 18th century Sunderland Point was a port for Lancaster serving ships too large to sail up to the town.[1] According to the Lonsdale Magazine of 1822,[2] which appears to rely on the then oral history,[3] 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.[4] He was buried in unconsecrated ground (as he was not a Christian) on the weatherbeaten shoreline of Morecambe Bay.[5]
With the opening of Glasson Dock in 1787, trade ships deserted Sunderland Point and it became a sea-bathing place and holiday venue.[1] 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.[1] 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 character, and the eccentric and inconsistent spelling typical of the time):[6]
Here lies Poor A faithfull Who (Attending his Maſter from the Weſt Indies) on his Arrival at | |
Full sixty Years the angry Winter's Wave Has thundering daſhd this bleak & barren Shore Since 's Head laid in this lonely Lies still & ne'er will hear their turmoil more. Full many a Sandbird chirps upon the Sod But still he sleeps _ till the awakening Sounds James Watſon Scr. H.Bell del. 1796 |
The present plaque is a modern replica, replacing the original which had been stolen.[7] This is explained by a smaller plaque, set immediately above the main plaque, which reads:[6]
Thoughtless and irreverent people having damaged & defaced the plate, this replica was affixed. RESPECT THIS LONELY GRAVE |
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.[1] [5] [8] The grave was enclosed by a low stone wall in 2019 and Chris Drury's "Horizon Line Chamber" was built on the approach path.