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Documenting the Life of Archibald Monteath
Maureen Warner Lewis in her recent publication “Archibald Monteath: Igbo, Jamaican, Moravian”, Kingston, University of the West Indies Press, 2007, says that the “life story of Anaso, later Archibald John Monteath, is one of the few Caribbean slave narratives to have been so far been recovered. It encapsulates the experience that converted an Igbo boy from West Africa into a slave on estates along the St. Elizabeth/Westmoreland parish borders on the Caribbean island of Jamaica”.
Some of Warner – Lewis’ extensive research was done at the Jamaica Archives as she was able to substantiate from the records in the institution many of the experiences and events Monteath describes in his remarkable life. For instance, Archibald says that –
- when he arrived in Jamaica he was sold to a John Monteith, the proprietor of Kepp Estate and after a number of years, John Monteith died. From the St. Elizabeth Burial Register we know that this death took place in January 1815. Records of Kepp Estate were also found;
- he was baptized into the Church at Black River and this record was found in the St Elizabeth Baptismal record for 1821;
- he married Rebecca Hart, who was also a slave. He said that “ as it was market day the church was quite filled with people, the most of whom laughed at us, that we, black people would thus be married.” This marriage is the first recorded in the Church of England register of marriage of slaves for St. Elizabeth and it took place on 8th January 1826.
- he was received into the Moravian Church at Carmel. That event is recorded in the Carmel Church Register for 1827.
Records at the Archives relating to Archibald Monteath have also been featured in a film about his life as a scene from the highly acclaimed documentary The Last Slave was shot at the Archives. It showed David Monteith, a descendant of Archibald, examining some of the records relating to his famous slave ancestor as David traced Archibald’s long journey from Africa to Jamaica.
You might also find in the Archives information on your own ancestors. Come and visit us!
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