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

Matthew Gregory Lewis's anecdotal record, the Journal of a West India Proprietor, was not published until 1834, nearly twenty years after his death. Warmly praised by Coleridge, the Journal's vivid descriptions and lively, self-deprecating tone make it one of the most readable accounts of plantation life from a slave-holder's perspective. Although Lewis emerges as a humane and enthusiastic chronicler, his omissions are as significant as the carnivalesque vignettes he sketches. Journal of a West India Proprietor records a colonial encounter between slave-holder and slaves at a critical historical moment, as anti-slavery agitation was to lead to emancipation within twenty years.