M. G. Lewis

This work provides a valuable insight into plantation life in Jamaica in the early 1800s. Englishman Matthew Gregory Lewis wrote it during his first journey to his plantations in Jamaica in 1817. It was not published in London until 1834, nearly two decades after being written, during the peak of the international abolitionist movement. Lewis was a slave-owner who took over two large plantations owned by his family, and he would visit it twice. During this trip, he examined the living and working circumstances of the enslaved people on his plantations. His informal record, the Journal of a West India Proprietor, offers a vivid report on plantation life from the standpoint of a 'liberal' enslaver. He was an acute observer of everything he saw, and nothing escaped his watch. He has also included a few folk tales told by the enslaved ones. In addition to this work, he was a novelist and best known as the author of the famous gothic novel The Monk.