Journal of a West India Proprietor: Kept during a Residence in the Island of Jamaica

by Matthew Gregory Lewis

Matthew Lewis is best remembered as the author of the sensational Gothic novel The Monk . He was also a slave-owner, inheriting two large plantations and making two visits to Jamaica to investigate the living and working conditions of his slaves. His anecdotal record, the Journal of a West India Proprietor , offers a vivid account of plantation life from the slave owner's perspective. This edition provides full contextual background and includes Lewis' verse narrative The Isle of Devils , as well as a telling last letter and extract from his papers.

Genres: History, Classics, Nonfiction, British Literature, Memoir, Autobiography

347 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1834

About the author

Matthew Gregory Lewis was an English novelist and dramatist, often referred to as "Monk" Lewis, because of the success of his classic Gothic novel, The Monk.

Matthew Gregory Lewis was the firstborn child of Matthew and Frances Maria Sewell Lewis. Both his parents' families had connections with Jamaica. Lewis' father owned considerable property in Jamaica, within four miles of Savanna-la-Mer, or Savanna-la-Mar, which was hit by a devastating earthquake and hurricane in 1779. Lewis would later inherit this property.

In addition to Matthew Gregory Lewis, Matthew and Frances had three other children: Maria, Barrington, and Sophia Elizabeth. On 23 July 1781, when Matthew was six and his youngest sister was one and a half years old, Frances left her husband, taking the music master, Samuel Harrison, as her lover. During their estrangement, Frances lived under a different name, Langley, in order to hide her location from her husband. He still, however, knew her whereabouts. On 3 July 1782, Frances gave birth to a child. That same day, hearing of the birth, her estranged husband returned. Afterwards, he began to arrange a legal separation from his wife. After formally accusing his wife of adultery through the Consistory Court of the Bishop of London on 27 February 1783, he petitioned the House of Lords for permission to bring about a bill of divorce. However, as these bills were rarely granted, it was rejected when brought to voting. Consequently, Matthew and Frances remained married until his death in 1812. Frances, though withdrawing from society and temporarily moving to France, was always supported financially by her husband and then later, her son. She later returned to London and then finally finished her days at Leatherhead, rejoining society and even becoming a lady-in-waiting to the Princess of Wales. Frances and her son remained quite close, with her taking on the responsibility of helping him with his literary career. She even became a published author, much to her son’s dislike.

Matthew Gregory Lewis began his education at a preparatory school under Reverend Dr. John Fountain, Dean of York at Marylebone Seminary, a friend of both the Lewis and Sewell families. Here, Lewis learned Latin, Greek, French, writing, arithmetic, drawing, dancing, and fencing. Throughout the school day, he and his classmates were only permitted to converse in French. Like many of his classmates, Lewis used the Marylebone Seminary as a stepping stone, proceeding from there to the Westminster School, like his father, at age eight. Here, he acted in the Town Boys’ Play as Falconbridge in King John and then My Lord Duke in High Life Below Stairs. Later, again like his father, he began studying at Christ Church, Oxford on 27 April 1790 at the age of fifteen. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1794. He later earned a master's degree from the same school in 1797.

Reviews

[Laura McNeal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautifully written, sometimes funny, repeatedly shocking, disarming diary by a person on the right side of the wrong side of history, by which I mean that he inherited a sugar plantation in Jamaica, but unlike most owners (including the father of Elizabeth Barrett Browning) he actually visited it--twice--and attempted to understand slaves as individual people and to analyze his own motives as a person of wealth and power. These two things seem unimpressive in our own era, but the diary is valuable if only as a means to understand how different that era was. It's hard to imagine now, in a time of simple, quick, boring transatlantic flight, how dangerous it was to travel between Jamaica and England by ship--Lewis died on the return sail of his second visit, and nearly died during a voyage that took 11 eleven weeks instead of the usual six-to-eight and involved a hurricane that sank 16 similar ships. And in a time of careful, nervous, and impassioned debate about who can speak for and about whom, and using which words, it's hard to fathom how tragically, fatally uncommon it was for white Europeans to empathize with African Jamaicans even after the slave trade was abolished in the British empire.

That doesn't mean the diary is inoffensive. The way that every white colonist talked about Africans and African-Jamaicans in the early 19th century is offensive because even the missionaries and abolitionists are reflexively paternalistic. To fault them for paternalism, however, is like faulting humans for thinking the world was flat in the middle ages. Christianity is patriarchal, Great Britain was overwhelmingly Christian in 1818, so the only way to be good as a man was to be a good father, and a good father was like the Victorian God: kindly and protective of his children, teaching them right from wrong, giving them his benediction where deserved. As a paternal "master" in a time when the term was never put in quotation marks, Lewis was unusually articulate, unusually self-reflective, funny, cheerful, loving, and touchingly furious about the constant, matter-of-fact, horrific abuse of powerless women. In this way the book is an instructive glimpse into one of the worst, most sustained crimes one enormously powerful race ever committed.

[Kusaimamekirai · Rating 3 out of 5]

What’s in a name? For soon after my reaching the lodging-house at Savannah la Mar, a remarkably clean looking negro lad presented himself with some water and a towel: I concluded him to belong to the inn; and, on my returning the towel, as he found that I took no notice of him, he at length ventured to introduce himself, by saying, ‘Massa not know me; me your slave!’ and really the sound made me feel a pang at the heart. The lad appeared all gaiety and good humour, and his whole countenance expressed anxiety to recommend himself to my notice; but the word ‘slave’ seemed to imply, that, although he did feel pleasure then in serving me, if he had detested me he must have served me still.

So…I’m going to preface everything I’m about to write here by saying that I believe Matthew Gregory Lewis is a fantastic writer. His novel “The Monk” is, despite being written over 200 years ago, as inventive and imaginative as anything you’ll read. Even here in his diary of his visits to his sugar plantation, he has some wonderfully humorous anecdotes and his ability to convey the sights, smells, and people of early 19th century Jamaica brings you as close to that period as is possible sans a time machine.
With that disclaimer out of the way, it’s exceedingly difficult to like this guy.
I suppose you can enjoy the music of Wagner while not thinking about the fact that he was a raging anti-semite, the paintings of Jackson Pollack without thinking too much about his violence toward women, or the writings of William Burroughs while ignoring that he shot his wife in the head.
There is real merit in this diary from a historical perspective but from a human perspective, not so much.
The latter actually comes as a bit of a surprise to me in that there are numerous reviews of this book touting Lewis’s enlightened views toward slavery.
Some that described him as tortured even about the practice.
Perhaps I’m missing something but I struggle to recall any passages where Lewis thinks the practice of slavery should be abolished.
The closest he comes is perhaps here:

"Every man of humanity must wish that slavery, even in its best and most mitigated form, had never found a legal sanction, and must regret that its system is now so incorporated with the welfare of Great Britain as well as of Jamaica, as to make its extirpation an absolute impossibility, without the certainty of producing worse mischiefs than the one which we annihilate."

It was in reality, a quite common refrain of slaveholders, not unlike Thomas Jefferson when he claimed that slavery is like holding a tiger by the tail. You want to let it go but you fear the consequences. These “consequences” (usually the fear of some kind of mass murder of whites by newly freed blacks) of course were the fever dream of rich planters who wanted to look humane while still profiting off their forced human labor. Lewis was a part of that class.
In addition, Lewis does in fact provide small trinkets to his slaves, such as clothing, extra provisions like salt fish and rum (he is a cane farmer after all so getting his slaves drunk probably wasn’t a particularly large sacrifice), and three holidays a year outside of a Sunday off each week.
Yes, three. Don’t hurt yourself patting yourself on the back too hard for that Matt.
To his credit, he is also very clear that he tolerates no violence or abuse of his slaves from his overseers, except in extraordinary circumstances.
It is something he seems to pay more than lip service to.
Are these things better than the treatment of slaves at other Jamaican plantations? As Lewis incessantly reminds us, yes. Are his slaves, you know, still slaves? Also, yes.
While some seem to want to credit Lewis with introspection about his role as a slave owner, the truth seems to be that he was completely unremarkable and indistinguishable (outside of employing violence) from any other slave owner of the time.
In fact, most of his “rewards” for his slaves are attached to conditions. With his female slaves in particular, he sets some fairly reprehensible child bearing quotas in which he views there job as producing more slaves for him. With each new birth, comes more material goods and comfort (comfort being a relative word when you are a slave).
Those women who don’t produce offspring for him cause him no end of annoyance and irritation. He doesn’t hit them, but you definitely get the sense that he’d like to for their “selfishness”.
He also limited the amount of time newborn babies were allowed to breastfeed with their mothers.

“Again, mothers being allowed certain indulgences while suckling, persist in it for two years and upwards, to the great detriment both of themselves and their children: complaint of this being made to me, I sent for the mothers, and told them that every child must be sent to the weaning-house on the first day of the fifteenth month, but that their indulgences should be continued to the mothers for two months longer, although the children would be no longer with them.”

There is one instance as well when he talks about freeing one of his favorite slaves. Apparently has been doing so for years, much to the consternation of that particular slave you’d imagine. But you know, he can’t free him until that slave finds him a substitute slave. Money being what it is after all.
Even when the manumission is almost over the line after years of work, there is a snafu in the process of the new slave arriving so it’s just…off.

“This morning I signed the manumission of Nicholas Cameron, the best of my mulatto carpenters. He had been so often on the very point of getting his liberty, and still the cup was dashed from his lips, that I had promised to set him free, whenever he could procure an able negro as his substitute”

Yes, “the cup was dashed from his lips”. What phrasing! Almost as eloquent as it is cruel.
Almost as if Lewis has no agency in keeping this man enslaved. “Yeah Nick, I’d love to and all but that’s life and YOU didn’t find me a new slave so go and cut some more sugarcane”.
We don’t know what happens to Nicholas after that, Lewis doesn’t tell us. We are left to assume that this slave that he claims he loves, remains his slave.
You see, Lewis’s love is extremely conditional.
He spends most of the book describing laughable scenes where his slaves, always referring to him as “massa” express their undying love and devotion to him. Lewis of course eats all this up and seems to view himself as some kind of cross between Jesus Christ, Abraham Lincoln and Gandhi (if he lived in a different era of course).
Some of the passages he describes are both difficult to read in their paternalism and condescension as well, so patently forced and disingenuous that one wonders how Lewis couldn’t have been more aware of what was going on:

"…not one man or woman has come to me with a single complaint. On the contrary, all my enquiries have been answered by an assurance, that during the two years of my absence my regulations were adhered to most implicitly, and that, ‘except for the pleasure of seeing massa’ there was no more difference in treatment than if I had remained upon the estate."

"…now, when I am accustomed to see every face that looks upon me, grinning from ear to ear with pleasure at my notice, and hear every voice cry ‘God bless you, massa’, as I pass, one must be an absolute brute not to feel unwilling to leave them subject to the lash; besides, they are excellent cajolers, and lay it on with a trowel. Nicholas and John Fuller came to me this morning to beg a favour, ‘and beg massa hard, quite hard!’ It was, that when massa went away, ‘he would leave his picture for the negroes’ that they might talk to it, ‘all just as they did to massa.’….But, although the mode of expressing it may be artifice, the sentiment of good-will may be shown. A dog grows attached to the person who feeds and makes much of him; and as they have never experienced as yet any but kind treatment from me personally, it would be against common sense and nature to suppose that my negroes do not feel kindly towards me."

More ridiculous however, is while Lewis is under the impression that his slaves are practically thanking him for enslaving them (Lewis frequently describes how he views the lives of free blacks as miserable in comparison), they actually subvert his rules and take advantage of him whenever they can.
While the extent to which they can do this as slaves is obviously somewhat limited, I marveled at and thoroughly enjoyed how they lied to him, stole from him, ran away, malingered in hospital for weeks at a time, and often just flat out refused to work. Upon discovery, they repeated the routine of praising his kindness to high heaven until the cycle repeated. That Lewis was in a constant state of irritation and bewilderment that his slaves would do these things after all he believed he had done for them, seems to indicate that he never understood that you know, he was holding them against their will. No amount of glass beads or baubles changes the fundamental desire of men and women for freedom. Lewis is many things here, self-aware is not one of them.

"I have listened patiently to all complaints. I have increased the number of negro holidays, and have given away money and presents of all kinds incessantly. Now for my reward. On Saturday morning there were no fewer than forty-five persons (not including children) in the hospital; which makes nearly a fifth of my whole gang. Of these, the medical people assured me that not above seven had any thing whatever the matter with them; the rest were only feigning sickness out of mere idleness, and in order to sit doing nothing."

"About three this morning an alarm was given that the pen-keeper had suffered the cattle to get among the canes, where they might do infinite mischief; the trustee was roused out of his bed; the drivers blew their shells to summon the negroes to their assistance; when it appeared, that there was not a single watchman at his post; the watch-fires had all been suffered to expire; not a single domestic was to be found, nor a horse to be procured; even the little servant boys, whom the trustee had locked up in his own house, and had left fast asleep when he went to bed, had got up again, and made their escape to pass the night in play and rioting; and although they were perfectly aware of the detriment which the cattle were doing to my interests, not a negro could be prevailed upon to rouse himself and help to drive them out, till at length Cubina (who had run down from his own house to mine on the first alarm) with difficulty collected about half a dozen to assist him: but long before this, one of my best cane-pieces was trampled to pieces, and the produce of this year’s crop considerably diminished. And so much for negro gratitude! However, they still continue their eternal song of ‘Now massa come, we very well off’ but their satisfaction evidently begins and ends with themselves. They rejoice sincerely at being very well off, but think it unnecessary to make the slightest return to massa for making them so.”

There are countless other examples I could recount of Lewis’s heartlessness, vanity, lack of self awareness, sanctimony, and a bunch of other unflattering character traits.
Some would, and do argue that Lewis was a man of his time.
That it was somehow not possible, as historian Barbara Fields once said about those who failed to speak up about slavery, to transcend your era and think and act on a higher moral plane.
I have no time for or inclination to forgive Lewis’s actions or dismiss them by saying “everyone was like this”. Even in the early 19th century there were forceful voices condemning the cruelty of slavery. Voices that Lewis himself lets us know he was aware of and yet he chose to fall back on the cowardly refrain of his fellow slaveowners by maintaining that his slaves were in fact happier and better off with him than by being free. No amount of salt fish, coins, or meagre time he gave them changes that when the opportunity to be good presented itself, he did nothing.

[Eugenia O'Neal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provided an invaluable insight into plantation life in Jamaica in the early 1800s. Lewis was an absentee proprietor who visited his plantations twice and was fascinated by the island. He was a keen observer of everything he saw and nothing escaped his attention - from the insect life on the island to Creole dishes to the interactions between the slaves, he recorded it all. He also included a few of the folk tales told by his slaves, something few others of the time bothered to do. Lewis was a slave-owner but he tried to treat his slaves humanely and sought to make sure that they were well-fed and not exposed to more danger than necessary. I've read other books of the period by planters and members of the colonial administration and, really, Lewis comes across as the nicest of them all.

He died on his way back to England after his second trip.

[Emma Stark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating book. Lewis is enlightening and attempts to be progressive as a slaveholder at the tail end of slavery. He reproduces lots of stories and traditions from his slaves and I see some traces of syncretism in his writing. His perspective and racist views are somewhat nausea-inducing as well. He alternates between being fearful of slaves and being patronizing and demeaning in his descriptions.

[Axel · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I spent this spring reading up on Danish West Indies whose chroniclers are mainly doctors and sailors this book was a very interesting read.

The literary background of the voyager is clear through the book and makes it, in a way, quite similar to the narratives of those Greco-Roman authors Lewis himself frequently both quotes and mentions.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating insight into the attitudes, opinions, and approaches of a slave owner sympathetic to his 'properties'.

[Lola Pearce · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a challenging book to read, but also fascinating and well written.
Lewis is a slave owner, and has two sugar plantations in Jamaica at the turn of the 19th century.
Some of the language and assumptions used to describe people of colour is so outdated, outrageous and offensive to modern ears that i was often shocked, or else ignorant of their meanings, needing to Google terms in use in 1815.
It is clear that Lewis loved Jamaica for its natural abundance of diverse and verdant beauty, and it’s population.
His fascination with, and his personal sense of responsibility and duty to his slaves is both touching and disturbing in equal measure.
So much so, that Lewis risks his life twice in the undertaking of long and treacherous voyages - the final sailing to Jamaica so dangerous that 16 nearby and similar ships were lost in the stormy seas, and in the final journey back to England Lewis dies at sea.
It can be argued ( and has been by other reviews of this book) that Lewis was on ‘the right side of the wrong side’. A kind, fair and caring man who took the well-being, health and justice of his slaves very seriously. Often overseeing improvements in the rights and treatment of his slaves , hearing and dealing with injustices and complaints from his slaves, metering out gifts, money and holidays, and building better , more comfortable hospital and living conditions of their homes and gardens. He also attempted to offer some education and Christian ministry choices.

Within his journal pages, Lewis conveys care, concern, often affection and even amusement for the people he is Master to. it is also evident that Lewis has taken pains to know his slaves as individuals which, at the end of eighteenth and turn of the nineteenth centuries was unusual for white European slave owners to do.
I would also argue though, that in 1815, in England, transportation of slaves from Africa was illegal, so was owning a slave on British soil, and the voices of abolitionists were ever louder. Lewis mentions this in his writing but does not reflect on his own morality, or how history may remember him.
Lewis was an accomplished author in his own right and a member of parliament. It begs the question as to whether He had intended the publication of his journals; therefore romanticises, sensors and generally sells his ideal of plantation life as a work of propaganda.
I do admit that while reading Lewis’ description of idyllic little slave villages with their attached vegetable gardens, with happy, grateful slaves, I was reminded simultaneously of Disney’s Song of the Soufh “ Zipperdee Do Da “ scene but also the Nazi propaganda film depicting happy, healthy Jews working, smiling and socialising in the ‘commune -like’ Concentration camp. What would our opinion be today if that film had been the only surviving archive of Auchwitz?
My point being that Lewis’ narrative is the only document of what life was really like at Cornwall Estate plantation in Jamaica. Taken at face value as a private and truthful entry from a slave owner’s journal , it challenged my modem and popular concept of a ‘ barbaric hell’ of a brutal, exploitative regime that saw only whites as the evil oppressors and blacks as the wretched, unwilling victims of a Monstrous and unforgivable crime.
Lewis’ journal May impart To a modern reader, the realisation that things were much more complex on both sides.
After reading this book I felt uncomfortable with this concept and also haunted by Cornwall Estate.

[M.R. Dowsing · Rating 5 out of 5]

Matthew Lewis, author of the infamous gothic horror novel The Monk, disapproved of slavery but found himself inheriting two plantations in Jamaica, each of which came with 300 slaves. He makes two trips to Jamaica, sailing from London on both occasions, and describes the horrendous voyages which nearly kill him and actually do finish off several of his fellow passengers. When he arrives, he sets about trying to improve the lives of his slaves, and immediately bans the use of the cart-whip. Although at this point the British government has banned the abduction of people from Africa, it's still legal to own slaves, and Lewis knows that if he suddenly sets 600 of them free, the results won't be good for anybody. He's an engaging writer, showing a great deal of good will and humour, and is happy to poke fun at himself, but he's also a man of his time who feels superior to his 'negroes', is not always great at understanding their perspective, and is sometimes guilty of stereotyping. I found this to be a really fascinating book. It comes with an excellent introduction by Judith Terry which is best read after reading Lewis' account.

[Charmaine · Rating 2 out of 5]

A hard read from the pov of a slave plantation owner...although he does banish physical punishment he still thinks them inferior and objectives them...

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I skipped 50 pages because I just don't care about it. It's such a dry read oh my god

[Sunshine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a memorable read and I am glad to have taken the time for it. I see that this book has some interesting mixed reviews; some reviewers seem to think that the author was entirely self - interested, and that any supposed benevolence he showed his slaves was for self - congratulatory purposes. What's more, that any acts of kindness that took place were invented by him and did not actually happen.
Maybe this is true. But I see no reason to tell anything but the truth, as best as it can be recollected, in a written work intended for your eyes only. Could it also be true that he was trying to accommodate for his participation in an evil institution with small acts of charity/benevolence?
I am not meaning to say that he was a good person, or on the right side of history.
Actions speak louder than words, at the end of the day, and at the end of the day, he was a slaveholder.
But could it also be true that what good things he did do, however relative they were, were real?

[Lobstergirl]

Not a review....I haven't read the book yet.

I didn't even realize Lewis, known for his gothic novel The Monk, was a slaveowner, though I've been reading a number of books about slavery. I was just clicking through his bibliography and saw this. I'm going to guess, based on the phrase "during a residence," that he was an absentee owner, which was extremely common in the British and French slaveowning Caribbean islands. Orlando Patterson found that absentee owners resulted in the worst treatment of slaves (Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study).

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This text was actually really easy to read through. The fractured element with the diary entries made it easier to split up and read in little chunks.

I loved the eloquence of the writing, especially over the sections where they travel over the seas. I enjoyed the nautical descriptions and the imagery truly set the scene. The journal entries were descriptive of the plantations, the history of slavery and the overall the journal was fascinating!

The text is of course problematic. The narrator seems caring, upset over the mistreatment of slaves and even the word 'slave' itself. Yet his racist and sexist attitude is clear throughout making it difficult as a contemporary reader.

[Myles · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.3/5.0) Read this in Jamaica, determined to visit anything interesting Lewis happens to mention. Unfortunatley, due to the scourge of the slave rebellions and the far less justified tourism industry whitewash, none exist.