The Worlds Saddest Historical Documents

History has some sad stories. The powerful emotions that can exist in a simple piece of paper will leave you speechless.

If you thought you’ve had it tough lately, take a look at these, and maybe you’ll feel better. Get your tissues ready.

1. Alton Miller’s 1918 Pandemic Letter

Alton Miller was a driver in the army in Kentucky during the great pandemic of 1918.

He wrote to his father on October 5:

“Don’t get frightened but I have had the influenza for four days.”

Soon after, the chaplain writes to his parents, saying;

“I am sitting by the bed of your son who is ill with pneumonia. He seems to have lost his nerve. It will be well if you can come.”

Finally, on October 11, a telegram is sent:

“Your son Alton Miller died at base hospital at one o’clock today.”

2. Boarding pass for the Titanic
It was Anna Sjoblom’s 18th birthday. The Finnish teenager was travelling aboard the Titanic on her way to New York. In the early hours of the morning, the ship struck an iceberg and sank in the freezing North Atlantic Ocean, taking more than 1500 people with it.

Anna survived, as did her boarding pass. It sold at auction in 1999 for $100,000.

3. Guy Fawkes’ Confession

In 1605 Guy Fawkes conspired to kill King James I and his Lords by blowing up the Houses of Parliament.

The authorities received a tip off and Fawkes was caught red-handed.

This document is part of his confession – his signature below is after his torture, while the one above was made before, suggesting the suffering he endured.

Guy Fawkes and his 7 conspirators were all executed.

Londoners were then encouraged to mark the anniversary by lighting bonfires to celebrate the King’s escape, and the tradition has survived for 400 years.

4. Roosevelt diary

On Valentines Day, 1884, Theodore Roosevelt’s 22 year old wife had just given birth.

When he arrived at his front door he was greeted by his brother with the words, ‘there is a curse on this house.’

Upstairs he found his wife dying of kidney disease which was masked by the pregnancy and downstairs his mother had a life threatening fever caused by typhoid.

Both his mother and wife died within hours of one another.

His diary entry that day ends with the simple but heart-breaking entry: ‘The light has gone out of my life.’

5. The Fraterville Coal Mine Letters

On May 19th 1902 an explosion at the Fraterville Coal Mine in Tennessee killed 216 miners.

26 miners survived the blast but were trapped in an airtight part of the cave.

One miner Jacob L. Vowell, whose 14-year-old son Elbert was a miner and with him, wrote to his wife :

“Ellen darling. Good-bye for us both.

Elbert said the Lord had saved him. Do the best you can with the children. We are all praying for air to support us; but it is getting so bad without any air…
Goodbye darlings.”

6. Brookes Slave Ship

The Brookes was a British slave ship that was launched in 1781.

To highlight the plight of the slaves, an engraving was published showing the conditions on board. It became an iconic depiction of the cruelty of the slave trade.

It shows how slave traders managed to get 487 slaves on board for the journey from West Africa to America. Each person was allocated a space 6 foot by 1.5 foot.

8. The Treaty of Fort Laramie

The Treaty of Fort Laramie is peace treaty from 1868 between the United States and the Lakota and Arapaho Native American tribes.

It effectively ended Red Cloud’s War and established the Great Sioux Reservation for the Native American tribes.

However, the peace did not last long. Gold was discovered in the Black Hills, and predictably the government decided it wanted the land back.

The Great Sioux War broke out soon after.

8. Anne Frank’s last diary entry

Anne Frank, the teenage Jewish diarist, has become a symbol of young courage since she hid from the Nazis for two years during World War II.

Her last diary entry, before she was captured, reads:

I'm split in two. One side contains my exuberant cheerfulness, my flippancy, my joy in life… The other one… is much purer, deeper and finer.

[I] keep trying to find a way to become what I'd like to be and what I could be if… if only there were no other people in the world.

9. Schindler’s List

Oskar Schindler was a member of the Nazi Party in Germany in 1945.

At the height of Hitler’s madness, while thousands of Jews were being deported to concentration camps, Schindler managed to rescue more than 1,000 men, women and children and transport them to safety.
10. Samuel Cabble Letter
Samuel Cabbie was a 21-year old private in the 55th Massachusetts Infantry. Before he joined the army he was a slave in Missouri, in the southern United States. He writes a heart warming letter to his wife:

Samuel Cabble returned to Missouri for his wife, and together they moved to Denver, Colorado. He died in 1905.

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