15 August 2012

Sunderland Point, is a small village among the marshes, on a windswept peninsula between the mouth of the River Lune, and Morecambe Bay, in the City of Lancaster district of Lancashire, England. It was used as a port for slave ships and cotton ships but its importance declined as other ports such as Lancaster were opened up.

The sea front. Only a few houses in the village. When we visited the water was getting close to covering the causeway. You have to be careful what time you visit and have access to tide times.

The beach leading to the true point of the peninsular.

We came here to see Sambo’s grave. The wording on the plaque reads:
Here lies
Poor Samboo
A faithfull Negro
Who
(Attending his Maſter from the Weſt Indies)
Died on his Arrival at Sunderland

Full sixty Years the angry Winter's Wave
  Has thundering daſhd this bleak & barren Shore
Since Sambo's Head laid in this lonely Grave
  Lies still & ne'er will hear their turmoil more.

Full many a Sandbird chirps upon the Sod
  And many a Moonlight Elfin round him trips
Full many a Summer's Sunbeam warms the Clod
  And many a teeming Cloud upon him drips.

But still he sleeps _ till the awakening Sounds
  Of the Archangel's Trump new Life impart
Then the Great Judge his Approbation founds
  Not on Man's Color but his_Worth of Heart

James Watſon Scr.               H.Bell del. 1796

This view from the grave shows the marshland and the beach and sea beyond.