Lancaster and the Slave Trade

What’s in a Name?
The Naming of Parts
The Grave at Sunderland Point

There’s an embarrassment in walking to the grave,
Out there at causewayed Sunderland Point,
From where ships once sailed the seven seas,
Now a desolate mudflat skyscape,
A couple of miles beyond the last post village –
But once all seascape hustle and bustle,
Shipshape and Lancaster slavery fashion.

There are still two pubs there in Overton,
The Globe and The Ship –
Cottages bear dates coeval with the slave trade.

The signposts curtly say: ‘Sambo’s Grave’,
It’s out there at windswept Sunderland Point;
The steps he climbed at the brewhouse are still there –
He climbed to pine and die in lonely isolation,
Or so the story has it;
The building – now a house – was up for sale,
When I visited in late summer 2021;
It’s history, like a name, silent.

An information board tells the tale in detail,
But there is no mention of the provenance
Of the word ‘Sambo’ and its cognate
Racist associations and lineage;
I looked at the well-tended imagined grave,
Decorated with painted pebbles
And children’s keepsakes.

I took out Dorothea Smartt’s book,
Ship shape and studied these descriptions:
‘Sambo, any male of the negro race …’;
‘Sambo: A pet name given to anyone of the negro race’;
‘Sambo … A colloquial or humorous appellation for a negro …’;
‘Sambo: a stereotypical name for a male black person
(now only derogatory) …’;

What’s in a name?
The Naming of Parts.

In Lancaster, there is a memorial,
The triangular trade represented in 3-D,
And also italicised and etched down a column,
Four headings to collate information,
Under the title Captured Africans:

Twenty-five names of ships;
The surnames and first names of the ships’ masters;
I counted 5,034 captured Africans,
Names unknown;
I looked at synonyms for nameless;
I looked at synonyms for chattel;

I took out Dorothea Smartt’s book,
Ship shape and studied these descriptions:
‘Sambo, any male of the negro race …’;
‘Sambo: A pet name given to anyone of the negro race’;
‘Sambo … A colloquial or humorous appellation for a negro …’;
‘Sambo: a stereotypical name for a male black person.

What’s in a name?
The naming of parts.