Albert Burton Jowett was born on Sherbro Island in what is now Sierra Leone in 1860. He grew up in the Mende Mission, which was operated by the Amistad Committee. It has been said that he may have been the son of Margru (also known as Sara Kinson), who was one of the Amistad captives, but this has not been confirmed. In 1878, Albert President Miller (Yale Divinity School, 1885) traveled to the Mende Mission, where he met Jowett. According to Yale Divinity School scholars Moses N. Moore, Jr. and Yolanda Y. Smith, Jowett served as an interpreter to Miller, “translating his sermons, as he delivered them, into the Mende language.” Jowett followed Miller’s academic path, graduating from Fisk University in 1889 and then attending Yale Divinity School from 1890 to 1891. Jowett died in Paris, Kentucky in 1908.