Sambo's Grave

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Sambo's Grave is the burial site of a young African cabin boy or slave, on unconsecrated ground in a field near the small village of Sunderland Point, England, near Heysham and Overton, Lancashire. Sunderland Point used to be a port, serving cotton, sugar and slave ships from the West Indies and North America.

The grave, while not a tourist attraction in itself, is a site of interest which many locals travel to see, and perhaps contemplate the sad story that brought Sambo so far from his home.

While travelling with his enslaver in 1736, Sambo died from a disease contracted from contact with Europeans, to which he had no natural immunity (although some more romanticised stories say that he died of a broken heart when his enslaver left him there). He was buried in unconsecrated ground (as he was not a Christian) on the weatherbeaten shoreline of Morecambe Bay. Today, the grave almost always bears flowers or stones painted by the local children.

Sunderland Point itself is a very small community, and is only accessible via a narrow road which crosses a salt marsh and is cut off at high tide.

[edit] Plaque

While initially unmarked, over the years the grave has been slowly added to, and now bears a plaque that reads as follows (note the occasional use of 'ſ', the Long s character):

[edit] External links

• Sambo's Grave, Lancaster, Liz Hodgson, Commemorating Abolition project, University of Central Lancashire, Feb 2007

Coordinates: 53°59′47″N 2°52′58″W / 53.9963, -2.8827