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 about workhouse punishment, while also discussing the Jamaican Assembly’s resistance to considering immediate abolition. The debate exposed competing claims: abolitionists argued that apprenticeship reproduced slavery and that planters had violated their obligations; opponents defended the system through compensation and contract arguments. The debate is evidence of a political struggle, not proof that Parliament acted on the motion that day.
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...
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...
👉 Parliament debates immediate abolition amid evidence from Jamaica
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29 Mart 1838
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...
On 16 June 1838, Governor Lionel Smith assented to an act passed by Jamaica’s Council and Assembly to end praedial apprenticeship from 1 August. He described it as the total abolition of praedial...
The remaining apprenticeship system ended in Jamaica, bringing legal freedom to people still bound to plantation labor after 1834. Communities gathered in Spanish Town to hear Governor Lionel Smith...
