Introduction
Hello. My name is Pricillah Smith and I am 15 years old. I came from England to the New World when I was eight, along with my 5-year-old brother, my 2-year-old sister, and my mother and father. I came to the New World because my family was poor and we heard that we could find work and have a better life in the New World. So we saved enough money for the passage onto the ship.
We left on November 18, 1768. We left at that time because we wanted to leave as soon as possible so we could get some land. We had the money to pay the passage so none of us had to indenture ourselves when we got off.
When we were on the ship, we stayed in a damp room with many other people and slept on the floor. The food there wasn’t very good either. Since we needed a way to preserve the meat, we packed it into barrels of salt. And there wasn’t enough fresh water to rinse the salt off so we had to eat it with all that salt on and that led to mouth rot.
The trip on the ship wasn’t an easy journey. It was very long, about 4 or 5 months and there were many diseses and misery. Some of these included vomiting, seasickness, fever, headache, heat, boils, scurvy, cancer, mouth rot, hunger, thirst, dampness, anxiety, want, afflictions, and so many lice that we could scrape them off the skin. Many people died. A few women had to be thown through the loophole because they coundn’t give birth in all the waves crashing against the ship and nearly tipping it over. Many people, adults and children, died of diseses. Other children died because they were orphaned and too young to take care of themselves so the passengers cast them into the water, after their dead parents. My entire family survived. We were very lucky.
Everybody on the ship was so relived to arrive in the New World. When we got off, at last, after months in the damp, dark, and cold ship,we saw sunlight. Bright, warm sunlight! The weather here, we saw, was very different. It was colder back in England. We saw an already inhabited town. There were different plants and we could see montains in the distance. We bought some land and built a house. We lived in that very house house for the next 3 years. Then my family decided I should have an apprenticship. I told them that I loved cooking and that I would like to learn the baking trade. And so I got and apprenticship with the baker until I was going to be 17. Right now I’m 15, so I have just 2 more years of living in the bakery with the indentured servant, Kristen Cooke. It is a nicer life in the New World, but I still miss England.
We left on November 18, 1768. We left at that time because we wanted to leave as soon as possible so we could get some land. We had the money to pay the passage so none of us had to indenture ourselves when we got off.
When we were on the ship, we stayed in a damp room with many other people and slept on the floor. The food there wasn’t very good either. Since we needed a way to preserve the meat, we packed it into barrels of salt. And there wasn’t enough fresh water to rinse the salt off so we had to eat it with all that salt on and that led to mouth rot.
The trip on the ship wasn’t an easy journey. It was very long, about 4 or 5 months and there were many diseses and misery. Some of these included vomiting, seasickness, fever, headache, heat, boils, scurvy, cancer, mouth rot, hunger, thirst, dampness, anxiety, want, afflictions, and so many lice that we could scrape them off the skin. Many people died. A few women had to be thown through the loophole because they coundn’t give birth in all the waves crashing against the ship and nearly tipping it over. Many people, adults and children, died of diseses. Other children died because they were orphaned and too young to take care of themselves so the passengers cast them into the water, after their dead parents. My entire family survived. We were very lucky.
Everybody on the ship was so relived to arrive in the New World. When we got off, at last, after months in the damp, dark, and cold ship,we saw sunlight. Bright, warm sunlight! The weather here, we saw, was very different. It was colder back in England. We saw an already inhabited town. There were different plants and we could see montains in the distance. We bought some land and built a house. We lived in that very house house for the next 3 years. Then my family decided I should have an apprenticship. I told them that I loved cooking and that I would like to learn the baking trade. And so I got and apprenticship with the baker until I was going to be 17. Right now I’m 15, so I have just 2 more years of living in the bakery with the indentured servant, Kristen Cooke. It is a nicer life in the New World, but I still miss England.