January 1 1803
Dear Diary,
Today was a very beautiful day and I woke up and it was dirty so I had to clean up because so far I
really don't have any bad emotions. Today at work as a guard for the village was a normal day. As
usual I went to my mother in law's house to pick up my daughter Equana. Today I took Equana to
the river to learn how to catch and qutt a fish because I'm teaching her how to survive in the wild if
she is all alone because I'm am captured, there is a lot of people every day getting taken form the
village into the boat to go to the "Americas".
January 23 1803 Dear Diary,
It's my birthday today and I got the day off work so all I wanted to do was hang out with my
daughter. The first thing we did was go fishing it was a really fun and relaxing time smelling the nice
winter air, but when we were leaving I thought I saw so people on the wrong side of the river, so we
just left because we didn't want to get involved in any trouble. Later that day we just hanged out
with friends to then have a quiet night.
February 17 1803
Dear Diary,
Every day since that day at the river, I have been thinking if they have planed to attack the villages
near and take everyone. Since that day I've also took my daughter to work because if something
does happen she's with me. I have had second thoughts about taking her with me because nothing
has happened and if something happens here I don't want her to get hurt.
February 18 1803
Dear Diary,
Today looking out the window was a very nice day with a calm breeze and the feeling of freshness.
As I walked to work I suddenly couldn't smell the breeze anymore so I was very scared if something
was going to happen to me. As I kept on walking I could see some people so I,wondered if it was
the people coming back from there meeting with the neighbor tribe so I went to them to know what
happened but that's not what I got. It was these white men trying to find black and strong men like
me. When I saw them I stopped and drop to the ground because I did not want to get captured and
beaten by these men. I followed these men until they stopped and I didn't see them stop so I kept
going until they saw me moving and ran after for miles stepping in swamps swimming in water and
angry and that is what kept me running. The men stopped running but I kept going but as soon as I
turned around 100 men was in front of my face, so I had no choice but so surrender.
February 21 1803
Dear Diary,
I've been in this camp for 3 days smelling rotten food and I smell like a pig. They said they were
going to put us on the boat today but I doubt that because there are only a hundred people, but
maybe it's a small boat. We finally got on the boat which was massive and I was really wondering if
we were leaving today. The boat started to move slowly, so I wondered if we were leaving and
asked a person if we were and they replied we probably were.
April 1 1803
Dear Diary,
The boat smells after 38 days a sea and feeling kinda sick and tired. I was beside two kids one 7
and 9 years and one died I heard because the boat hit a hard wave and he hit his head on a pole and one thing lead to another and they through him over board. They have given us these
"exercises" on the deck about once in a week and the only thing good about it would probably be
getting the fresh air and standing up.
May 17 1803
Dear Diary
85 days since we left home and half the people died including the two kids that were next to me.
We dock in some town which didn't look like home. We were put in some room with bars that
looked out towards this big square with lots of people looking at this guy talking really really fast
and holding this black mans shoulder while people are raising there hand. I've been in the room for
A couple of hours now and the ground is hurting my feet and I'm really cold, but I'm keeping
company with some of the people I was in the boat with. We were told that we would be taken out
one by one to the "auction block" to be sold and when I herd that I just laughed because, a human
getting sold is just hilarious, but then the man was very serious and said I go first. The man pulled
me out of the room into the big square and I felt very nervous I front of many white men. The man
said I was strong skinny and taller then some other black people to the white men. I was sold for £500 and not named because they said the name West was easy enough. They
moved me to a big land and was told that I would be a builder tomorrow. When I was transported
over to this big piece of land the man who bought me was talking normally to a black man and had
nice clothes on. May 18 1803
Dear Diary,
It's my first day on the job and I was told to build a shed to see what I can do to then build
something bigger for the master. It took me 10 hours to build the shed because he had so nice
materials than you could get in Africa. I don't really understand why people think being a slave is so
bad because I am being given good food and the work so far is not hard.
May 19 1803
Dear Diary,
When I went to the shed I built yesterday there was about three men standing and looking around it
and as soon as they saw it they were pretty happy about the shed and me. After they talked to me
about how good the shed was they told me that they want me and other builders to build a new
house for the slaves. After the master said for me to make a house for slaves I kinda didn't like the
master anymore. May 20 1803
Dear Diary
After yesterday was I don't like the master anymore.