History slavery Jamaica
📅 21 October 1837
📍 Jamaica
On 21 October 1837, commissioners George Gordon and John Daughtrey sent Governor Lionel Smith the proceedings of their inquiry. They reported that James Williams’s allegations received “few and inconsiderable contradictions” and that every material fact had been supported by a chain of testimony. They also investigated twenty-two additional cases of abuse beyond Williams’s pamphlet. This official finding strengthened the evidence against apprenticeship abuses. It was still a report prepared under colonial authority, and its surviving form reflects the commissioners’ selection and organization of testimony.
The Slavery Abolition Act received royal assent, setting a legal timetable for emancipation across most British colonies. The act did not bring immediate full freedom for most Jamaican adults: it...
The Act took effect in Jamaica. Children under six and people born after the appointed date were free, but most adults were reclassified as apprentices and required to keep working under former...
On 20 September 1837, commissioners George Gordon and John Daughtrey opened public proceedings at Brown’s Town, St Ann. Governor Lionel Smith had commissioned an inquiry into the administration of the...
At the commission hearing in Brown’s Town on 21 September 1837, apprentice Edward Lawrence described Henry James’s severe flogging at Penshurst and what he witnessed afterward. Lawrence said James was...
On 5 October 1837, the Gordon and Daughtrey inquiry moved its proceedings to St Ann’s Bay and inspected the parish House of Correction. The commissioners examined the institution and its records as...
👉 Commissioners submit findings that corroborate James Williams’s account
Current
21 October 1837
On 21 October 1837, commissioners George Gordon and John Daughtrey sent Governor Lionel Smith the proceedings of their inquiry. They reported that James Williams’s allegations received “few and...
On 28 November 1837, Marianne Bell, a domestic at Penshurst, swore an affidavit concerning the imprisonment of James Williams and Adam Brown. She stated that food was sent to the prisoners and...
On 29 March 1838, the House of Commons debated immediate abolition of apprenticeship across the British colonies. Speakers cited evidence from Jamaica, including James Williams’s account and reports...
On 6 April 1838, James Stewart moved a clause during debate on the Slavery Abolition Act Amendment Bill that would end apprenticeship in Jamaica on 1 August 1838. He argued that the Jamaican...
On 22 May 1838, the House of Commons adopted a resolution stating that apprenticeship in the British colonies should immediately cease. The motion passed by a majority of three. The resolution...
On 28 May 1838, the House of Commons voted 250 to 178 for a government motion declaring that it was not advisable to take steps to implement the resolution for immediate abolition passed six days...
