A Brief History of Benin by Amber
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A Slave's Journey by Lotte
At last, we were half dragged onto a mammoth vessel bigger than any spindly canoe I had ever seen back at my home in Africa. I could feel the slaves I was chained to trembling as a stiff leather whip cracked my back until I was blue with bruises. I saw my mother looking agonised from the deck of a neighbouring ship. That was the last time I ever saw her. As the dirty iron chains rubbed my sin red raw, a cockroach crawled over my sore bare feet. Dust and dirt infected my deep wounds but I remembered being whipped and promptly shut my mouth. The evil crew screamed at us in a rough tongue I did not understand. A few of the more fluent adults started up our tribal dance and I joined in proudly until I realised the crew’s smiles were actually sneers. I shut my aching eyes tight to block out the terrible suffering around me but the smells and sounds of torment roared on inside my head like a night mare, as finally the shout came to head below deck. M0ving from the sweltering heat to the di...
A Slave's Journey by Ilyas
Eventually, we were forced onto the majestic galleon. Fear flooded my veins. I wanted to cry and felt sick. I was chained tightly in thick, iron fetters, with my fellow slaves we tried to escape, but could not. The crew stared at us with disgust, looking ready to whip us if we didn’t follow orders. I could see the younger slaves crying after being separated from their parents. We were ordered to stand in the midday heat for what seemed like a year. After what seemed like the worst day of my life, we were ordered to go into the hull. As we opened the dirty, hatch and went down the rotten steps, it smelt revolting. The first thing to hit me was the smell of human skin. I was physically sick due to the unbearable heat and truly awful conditions. My heart sank. Once we were chained, the hard metal chains fetters rubbed my skin raw as younger slaves were crying because they have been separated from their parents. Tiredly, I closed my eyes slightly relived that it was th...
Fantastic Work Eva. You should be very proud of what you have achieved here. It is incredible to think how the slavers tried to convince others that what they were doing was almost benign.
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