Robert Benjamin Lewis
Robert Benjamin Lewis by artist Benjamin F. Nutting c. 1830 published in Pendleton's Lithography. Photo: American Antiquarian Society of Worcester, Massachusetts.
Robert Benjamin Lewis, born c.1798, was, among many things, an inventor and author. While he likely spent his younger years as a seaman, he is best known for writing Light and Truth: collected from the Bible and ancient and modern history, containing the universal history of the colored and the Indian race, from the creation of the world to the present time in 1836, while living in Hallowell. This extraordinary book was the first Afrocentric history published in the United States. In it, Lewis shared what he viewed as the history and achievements of African and Indigenous peoples. In 1843 he released a second, expanded version, and the book went on to receive several more reprintings in various forms.
Lewis was also a talented inventor and was one of very few African Americans to patent their inventions prior to the Civil War. While living in Maine, he invented and patented an oakum-picking machine that broke down old tar-covered nautical ropes into fibrous strands (oakum) that was used to caulk the seams of wooden ships, a critical part of Maine's shipbuilding industry. His invention helped make this work faster and more efficient. Lewis also created other inventions such as the Feather Renovator, a machine used for cleaning and drying feathers, and Lewis' Arabian Hair Oil.
In March of 1835 Lewis married Mary Freeman Heuston of Brunswick, who was the daughter of a former Virginia slave. Together they had 10 children: seven boys and three girls. Later in his life, Lewis became convinced that African Americans would never reach equality in the United States. It may be this desire that drove him to sign on the Philip Larrabee out of Bath as a cook and steward, headed for Haiti. After his arrival in Port-au-Prince, Lewis fell ill and passed away.