Monday, June 01, 2009
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An African Slave's Life from the Pens of German Moravians
Maureen Warner-Lewis. Archibald Monteath: Igbo, Jamaican, Moravian.
Kingston University of West Indies Press, 2007. 367 pp. $40.00 (paper),
ISBN 978-976-640-197-9.

Reviewed by Paul Peucker (Moravian Archives, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania)
Published on H-German (May, 2009)

Commissioned by Susan R. Boettcher


Moravians and Virgin Islands Creole

_An African Slave's Life from the Pens of German Moravians_

This book is a detailed study of the life of a former African slave, based
upon the verbal biography he gave to German-American missionaries. As the
title indicates, this intriguing life narrative is composed of many
layers. The main character was born in Africa but, at a young age, was
transported to Jamaica, where he remained until his death. As a member of
the Moravian mission he had a third identity: he was part of a global
brother- and sisterhood of fellow Moravians of different ethnic
backgrounds. Because of the interest his fellow Moravians took in his
life, his biography was recorded, translated, and published in various
Moravian periodicals, and finally preserved in their archives.

Aniaso was born around 1792 as a member of the Igbo tribe in West Africa.
His family belonged to the elite; Aniaso believed his maternal grandfather
was a "prince." Aniaso estimated that he was around ten years old when a
young man, a regular visitor to his village, talked him into following him
to a large marketplace. There, the unsuspecting Aniaso was sold to a slave
trader and put on a ship to Jamaica. As a personal servant to the ship's
captain, Aniaso did not have to dwell in the overcrowded slave quarters
below deck, but was allowed to stay in the captain's cabin together with a
few other boys. It seems the captain initially intended to keep Aniaso as
his own servant and not sell him. Aniaso relates how, at his own
insistence, the captain consented and let him go ashore. There he was
"immediately" sold to John Monteath, the owner of a plantation called Kep
in southwest Jamaica. His new owner gave him the name Toby.

At first Toby served in the household of John and Nancy Monteath, but
after a few years he was moved from lighter domestic duties to full
outdoor labor. In 1815 his master died; Toby then became the property of
his owner's widow and served as an overseer. During those years, Toby was
baptized by a minister of the Church of England and was christened
Archibald John Monteath--the name he kept for the rest of his life. In his
autobiography, Archibald later admitted that he did not fully understand
at that time what it meant to be baptized. Later, as a Moravian, he
learned about a more personalized form of religion.

An important part of Archibald's autobiography is devoted to his
relationship with the Moravians. He was introduced to the Moravians by a
pious plantation owner on Jamaica. From then on, Archibald became very
involved with the Moravians. In 1825 he married Rebecca Hart, and soon he
became a helper or assistant to the missionaries. As a helper, he traveled
around on Sundays and preached in different places on the island. The
Moravians lovingly referred to him as "Brother Archie."

A moving passage in the autobiography is Archibald's account of how he
purchased his own freedom from his owner on June 1, 1837: "This day always
remained to me a holy day!" (p. 231). He put on his Sunday best and rode
to the Moravian mission station, where the missionary and the other people
were surprised to see him on a weekday. "I took off my hat and waved it
about my head, and cried out with a loud voice: Thank God! I am free!" (p.
231). The Moravian missionaries offered him a paid position as helper for
all the mission stations. Archibald recounted his life story to Joseph
Kummer and Hermine Geissler, two Moravian missionaries, in 1853. Brother
Archie died eleven years later, in 1864.

This is not the first time Archibald's life has attracted attention.
First, the Moravian missionaries encouraged him to share his biography
with them. Although he was able to write, Archibald dictated his biography
and Sister Geissler wrote down the text. Writing a biography was a
long-standing tradition in the Moravian Church. With their pietist
interest in a personally experienced faith, Moravians valued hearing how
faith played a role in the lives of their fellow brothers and sisters.
Each Moravian was encouraged to write a _Lebenslauf_ (memoir), which was
to be read at the funeral service as a last testimony to a life lived in
faith and community. Moravian archives around the world are filled with
thousands of these ego-documents. In the past two decades, _Lebensläufe_
have attracted the interest of scholars from different backgrounds.

Moravians considered the story of Archibald's life and conversion so
fascinating that they decided to publish it, even prior to his death. The
editors of the _Missions-Blatt_, the German journal dedicated to Moravian
missions, did not print his name and apparently did not want Archibald to
know his biography was being published in order to "spare him the
temptation" (p. 9) of thinking too highly of himself. Coincidentally,
Archibald died on July 3, 1864, just as the _Missions-Blatt_ came out in
Europe. The following year an English translation of his memoir appeared
in the _Periodical Accounts_, the English equivalent of the
_Missions-Blatt._

Moravians did not forget Monteath's life; Archibald's account was reworked
as a religious tract and published in the German series _Missionsstunden
aus der Brüdergemeine_ (1898). In 1920 Walser H. Allen wrote his thesis at
Moravian Theological Seminary about Archibald Monteath. In 1966 Vernon
Nelson, archivist at the Moravian Archives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania,
published Archibald´s biography, as found in the papers of Joseph Kummer,
in the _Transactions of the Moravian Historical Society_.

The scope of the current study by Maureen Warner-Lewis, professor emerita
of English literature at the University of the West Indies at Jamaica,
differs quite extensively from the Moravian publications. Her goal is to
"reconstruct" the life of a former slave and to "explore the sociology of
slavery from 1750 to the 1860s" (cover text). Warner-Lewis places
Archibald's life in the context of his African birthplace, the
transatlantic slave trade, Jamaican society, and the global fellowship of
Moravians. The result is a well illustrated, pleasantly designed book
covering each aspect of Archibald's life that the author could envision.
Warner-Lewis considers Monteath's life story "a quest for honour lost in
childhood" (p. 250). He found new honor as a helper in the Moravian
Church. According to the author, Archibald presented himself, unlike other
(former) slaves who left narratives, with self confidence, "agency," and
"strength of character" (p. 250).

Warner-Lewis tries to understand Monteath psychologically. Being captured
and removed from one's natural roots demands finding replacements for
these. African slaves formed new ties with the shipmates who had made the
long and tedious journey with them, with co-workers on the plantations,
and in their church communities. As the grandson of a prince, Archibald
was supposed to have freedom, respect, and material wealth; instead he was
kidnapped as a child and sold off as a slave. According to Warner-Lewis,
he found replacements for his original social ties in the Christian
community that he later joined and in which he rose to the position of
general helper.

Although sources on Archibald Monteath are relatively abundant for a
person of his status, Warner-Lewis realizes their limitations. No reports
from angles other than his own (and modified by the missionaries) exist;
women are largely absent from Monteath's narrative. She compares
Monteath's displaced biography with the biography of his owner, John
Monteath, who, like the slaves, had come to Jamaica from overseas but who
was at the opposite end of the social hierarchy. Her lengthy commentary on
the Scottish Monteath family is the least successful part of the book.
Especially in this portion of the book, Warner-Lewis seems to lose herself
in the details. Her love of detail, combined with unnecessary jumps back
and forth in time, make some parts of the book difficult to read. The name
index is helpful, especially when individuals suddenly reappear in the
text after being introduced in previous chapters; however, beware, for the
index is incomplete.

Overall, Warner-Lewis paints a lively picture of nineteenth-century
society in Jamaica, with its different groups and intersecting layers:
whites, blacks, women, men, plantation owners, slaves, clergy, and laymen.

Citation: Paul Peucker. Review of Warner-Lewis, Maureen, _Archibald
Monteath: Igbo, Jamaican, Moravian._. H-German, H-Net Reviews. May, 2009.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=24126

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