Journal of a West India Proprietor,: kept during a residence in the island of Jamaica.

London: John Murray,, 1834. First edition of this posthumously published journal detailing two journeys made to Jamaica in 1815 to 1817. Published in the year of the emancipation of enslaved people in the British Empire, it offers a picture of slavery in Jamaica following the abolition of the slave trade in 1807, described by Coleridge as "by far his best work, [which] will live and be popular" (ODNB). Having inherited two Jamaican plantations from his father in 1812, Matthew "Monk" Lewis (1775-1818) travelled to the island to inspect his properties and the living conditions of the nearly 600 enslaved people living on his plantations. This work offers an insight into Lewis's perspective as an absentee plantation landlord; he spent little time in Jamaica and his humorous, allusive style belies the tensions inherent in the relationship between slave owner and enslaved people. Following his first visit to Jamaica, Lewis stayed at Lord Byron's Villa Diodati in the summer of 1816, where he drew up a document stipulating that subsequent owners of his plantations visit them every three years to ensure the welfare of the enslaved people that worked on them. This document was signed by Byron, Polidori, and the Shelleys. Known as a reformer, Lewis's narrative indicates his "sincere if somewhat misguided interest" (Ragatz, p. 228) in the welfare of the enslaved people on his plantations. In his literary work Lewis was an early influence on Scott. He wrote poetry, plays and the gothic novel The Monk, for which he is best known, published in 1796. He died of yellow fever shortly after his return from Jamaica in 1818. Octavo. Original green textured cloth, spine lettered in gilt, edges trimmed. Spine and extremities lightly sunned, slight bowing to book block, contents a little foxed: a very good, square copy. Sabin 40821. Lowell Joseph Ragatz, A Guide to the Study of British Caribbean History, 1763-1834, Including the Abolition and Emancipation Movements, 1932.