NORTHAMPTON — Five years after Ferris Shelton visited Elmina, Ghana in West Africa — a place known for its beautiful beaches as well as its role in the slave trade — he still could not get the images out of his mind.
Shelton, a Marine Corps veteran and Springfield resident, was haunted by the filth and smell that lingered in the dungeons where African slaves were held captive at the Elmina Castle.
“While I was there I was struck with the feeling that somebody in my ancestry must have gone through a place like this," Shelton said. “I am a multi-generational African-American, and I am descendant of slaves — and to think about my ancestors being held in a place like this hit me hard.”
The experience affected him so much that in 2003 he began writing a novel, “Seven Full Days,” which follows a man named Jason whose dreams take him on a journey into the painful history of slavery.
Shelton did a short reading of his work during a Black History Month event at the VA Central Western Massachusetts Healthcare System in Leeds Wednesday.
Amber Brown, diversity co-chair for the VA, said the program’s theme this year was the great migration. There poster presentations featuring information about topics ranging from the African diaspora to civil rights, from blacks in the media to historically black colleges and universities.
Participants stopped at different booths to learn historical information or speak with Shelton about his inspiration for the book.
Originally from Chicago, Illinois, Shelton joined the Marines at 17 and spent three years enlisted before going to work for Playskool, which eventually became Milton Bradley and then Hasbro. After nearly 20 years with the company, which included a move to Springfield, Shelton left the business and he and his family moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where he got a job working for a company called Quality Grain.
“The company was trying to grow rice in the fertile African soil and I was sent to Ghana in October of 1998,” he said.
During his stay Shelton took a tour of the Elmina Castle, which is now recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as a World Heritage historic site.
“It was a life transforming experience. Since UNESCO made it a world heritage site it cannot be disturbed, so when you walk into the dungeons the smell is still overpowering,” he said.
Shelton came home the following summer. For years he could not shake the feeling that he needed to write a book about his experience.
“I tried to deny it," he said. “I had no writing experience. It was a crazy thought, but I just felt like I had to get it out.”
Shelton spent months doing research at the Springfield Main Library learning the difference between first-, second- and third-person narration, proper sentence structure and combining nonfiction with historical fiction — all while fighting his own personal demons.
“I have made mistakes in my life. I had a problem with alcohol and I was going through a divorce, but I found that when I was not drinking the fog would clear and pieces of the story would just come to me,” he said.
When he felt the revision of the book was beyond his ability he located an editor, Rochelle O’Gorman.
“It was difficult because she was just slashing sentences left and right. These are words I worked so hard to write and at first I didn’t want to change anything, but after thinking about it for a few days or a week I would come to terms that the changes improved the book and I am so grateful to her,” he said.
In 2018, 15 years after he started writing the novel and 20 years after he visited Ghana, Shelton published the book under Levellers Press, an independent book publisher in Amherst.
The book follows Jason, a businessman who is haunted by dreams of his ancestors enslaved and held captive in Africa before being transported to other parts of the world. For the book reading Shelton chose a passage where Jason finds himself in a dungeon where male slaves were held:
“Soon the aromatic content of the breeze wafted by, it was the ocean. This new fact disturbed him deeply. Why, he thought, would hell be so situated near the sea? The possible topographical configuration of the setup was beyond his ken. Seashores and beaches are places for holiday and vacation. This place allowed for neither rest nor relaxation.”
For Shelton, fiction is intermingled with a personal experience that has haunted him for more than 20 years.
“All I know is that something kept driving me to write,” he said.
His book can be purchased on Amazon or on the Levellers website.