Montezuma The Serf Or The Revolt Of The Mexitili

Montezuma the Serf, or The Revolt of the Mexitili is a historical romance by Joseph Holt Ingraham (1809-1860), drawing on pre-Columbian Mexican subjects that mid-nineteenth century American readers found exotic and dramatic. The book belongs to the historical fiction strand of Ingraham’s long popular novel output.

Ingraham wrote across multiple genres for the American story-paper and cheap fiction market that flourished in the 1830s and 1840s. His historical romances drew on various periods and settings including pre-Columbian America, medieval Europe, ancient Rome, and American colonial history. The treatment was generally adventure-focused rather than historically rigorous, in the manner that the popular genre conventions required.

Montezuma the Serf uses Aztec Mexican material as its setting. The Mexitili reference in the subtitle is to the Mexica or Aztec people whose empire dominated central Mexico before the Spanish conquest of 1519-1521. The treatment of Mexican history reflects mid-nineteenth century American assumptions about the pre-Columbian civilizations and is dated in various ways.