History

My journey of discovery began when I picked up a book about place names in the Isle of Man by J. J Kneen. 

 In it, I noticed that one of my ancestors had been convicted of a “felony” back in the 1600s.  This fact fired up my interest and I began to dig further.  Little did I know that I was at the beginning of a remarkable and wonderful story.

Archive material

I’d always known that my ancestors had worked the farm “Ballabunt” where I now live with my family but with the help of Charles Guard from the Manx Heritage Foundation and the Manx History Society I uncovered evidence which showed that one of those ancestors was one of 12 unfortunate Manx prisoners who were transported to Jamaica on one of the earliest slave ships “The Speedwell”.

None of the prisoners had done anything terribly wrong by today’s standards, one man had stolen a coat, my ancestor had stolen two lambs and other crimes included stealing wool from a neighbour, but in those days the death sentence was mandatory for any theft valued over 6d ¾.

The criminals were put into the jail at Castle Rushen where they were subjected to the most terrible conditions.

Although there are records of “The Speedwell” arriving in the West Indies there are no records of this small group ever setting foot off the ship. 

The likelihood is that they died during the voyage.  If this was the case they would have been thrown over board to be eaten by the sharks which often followed these slavery vessels.

Even if they had survived the average life span of a white slave in the tropics was only about six weeks. 

Hampton reading from "Never to Return"

 The intense heat, the change of diet coupled with the cruelty and bad living conditions was too much for even the toughest of white prisoners.

And that is sadly where this story ends.  However, during my research I came across many other tales about Manx people who were sold as slaves, but that, as they say, is another story.