Benjamin Lewis was one of the figures in Byron’s circle, having served as the groom to the illustrious British Romantic poet during the last two years of his life. Lewis, however, represents a unique and fascinating case of a philhellene, as he was the first African American to travel to revolutionary Greece in 1823.
Lewis was a twenty-six-year-old African American who had been born in the United States in the late 18th century. In 1822–1823, he worked in the service of Edward Trelawny, a close friend of Lord Byron. As far as we know, he was a willing attendant who knew how to care for horses and cook.
In 1823, Lord Byron, impressed by Lewis’s abilities, asked Trelawny to let him have him. And so it happened. The African American servant became Lord Byron’s groom, and in July 1823, he was among those who boarded the ship “Hercules” and accompanied Byron on his journey to revolutionary Greece.
Lewis was a sensitive and loyal man. During his stay in Messolonghi, he offered shelter to two exhausted, freed Black women and remained devoted to Lord Byron until the latter’s death on 19 April 1824.
It is worth noting that Lewis subsequently traveled to Great Britain aboard the ship Florida, which transported Byron’s remains to England, and attended the funeral of the British philhellene poet in Nottinghamshire in July of that same year. Lewis died of smallpox two months after his arrival in England.
Read a detailed feature on Benjamin Lewis on the website of the Society for Hellenism and Philhellenism:
https://www.eefshp.org/benjamin-lewis-o-afroamerikanos-ippokomos-toy-lordoy-vyrona/
