Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: BLIND (06/03/21)
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TITLE: The Confession | Previous Challenge Entry
By Arlene Baker
06/10/21 -
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The men settled before the brisk fire. John sipped his hot beverage for a few moments, then placed the cup on the end table with a contented sigh.
“How well I remember my first trip to Sierra Leone.” He leaned back and closed his eyes. “My mum had died just before my seventh birthday. By age 11, my captain father deemed me old enough to learn the ways of the sea. Father was a tough man, so I grew up fast. By the time I was 18, he had decided I was ready to run a plantation and put me on a ship sailing to Jamaica. However, a British naval vessel intercepted us. Several officers boarded our ship in search of recruits. They asked me my age and impressed me on the spot, to serve in His Majesty’s navy. Although the commander made me a junior officer, I hated the experience so much I tried to escape when we reached land.” A mirthless snort.
“Not wise to insult the king’s service. The captain demoted me to a common deckhand. I hated that more and became more unruly. He rid himself of this problem — me — by reassigning me to the slave ship Pegasus, sailing to Sierra Leone. I do not have to tell you that the heaviest slave trade in the world comes out of there.”
“Dat be hard on my folk.” David shuddered. “We don’t know dat when de Crown pay our passage from Nova Scotia to dat country.” He flexed his large, labor-hardened hands.
“Dey sees de slaving ships comin’ and goin’. Ain’t far from nobody’s mind dat any one of us freed negroes could be found on de next ship. Keeps us all prayed up, fo’ shore.”
“It must be horrible.” John snatched up a poker to stir the fire.
“God be faithful.” David nodded. “He done take us outta American slavery, made us free in Nova Scotia, den brings us back to de land of our ancestors. He ain’t gonna let nobody be makin’ us slaves again. But, John, what happen next?”
“The new captain left me with Amos Clowe, a slave trader. He and his wife treated me as badly as any of their black slaves, who found pity in their hearts for me. They even smuggled food when they could.”
“Dat’s cuz de understands.”
“Yes, David. You are so right. I lived like that for five years before a captain friend of my father’s found me, and put me on his ship sailing back to England.”
“Dat cruel master not mind?”
“Well…” John laughed. “The captain had to convince him that it was in his best interests not to tangle with my father.” He reached for his teacup. “We hit a terrible storm, right off the coast of Ireland. So bad, I knew we would all die. I didn’t want to die and have my body lost at sea. I begged God for mercy.”
“He answered de prayers.”
“Yes.” A long pause. “You would think, David, after my experience of being little more than a slave myself and almost perishing at sea, I would turn my back on the whole ugly business. Fact is, I saw nothing wrong with the slave trade. I became captain of my own ship by age 25, shipped slaves and took whatever measures necessary to keep peace on board.”
David’s eyes widened. His lips worked but he uttered no sound.
“Yes. It took four years to quit that life. Not for shame of slaving, but I decided I wanted to be an Anglican priest. On terra firma. I lived and served as a priest for many years, never thinking about the wrong I’d done. Years later — when I was past 60 years of age, my mind traveled back to those days. Only then did full evil of selling humans to humans pierce my heart with deepest regret. I addressed my changed thinking publicly through my pamphlet, Thoughts upon the slave trade.
“I be glad you repented.” David twisted his own cup on its saucer. “It hard for me to be understandin’…”
No hard David. You see, I was so lost until God found me … ”
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You drew me right in and bam- packed a punch at the end which made me want to re-read from your famous MC's POV.
Well done!