Journal of a Residence Among the Negroes in the West Indies.

With a tangential Lord Byron connection…

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Matthew Gregory Lewis (1775–1818), member of Parliament, author, often referred to as “Monk Lewis” for his popular 1796 gothic novel The Monk, within Lord Byron’s orbit.

Through sudden inheritance, Lewis acquired two Jamaica plantations. Cundall: “His principal acts in Jamaica were the abolition of the lash; the acceptance of negro evidence at enquiries into offences &c., [...] He built better hospitals for the sick, granted extra holidays to his negroes, and generally did his best to spoil them [...]  Although he did all he could for the amelioration of the slaves, he was not, after personal experience in the island, in favour of emancipation.”

In Journal of a Residence Among the Negroes… Lewis denounced the evils of absentee landlordism, described plantation and island life, and detailed the hardships of Jamaica slaves, while Lewis was there between 1815–1817. Returning from his second visit to Jamaica, Lewis died at sea of yellow fever in 1818. Lord Byron considered Lewis to be a clever man, but a bore; yet Byron wrote after his death: “I would give many a sugar-cane / Mat Lewis were alive again!” Ironically, Lewis died “in the arms of his valet Tita, who was afterwards present at Byron’s death.” [Cundall]

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