This document appears to be a student's submission for a history assignment on apprenticeship in the Caribbean. It includes various sections like the introduction, areas of research, rationale, and background information on slavery and emancipation. The background provides details on the abolition of slavery and efforts at amelioration. It notes that apprenticeship was established between slavery and freedom to address planter concerns about losing labor. The comparison section analyzes differences between slavery and apprenticeship, finding apprenticeship modified some harsh treatments but slaves still faced forced labor and low social status. In under 3 sentences, this document presents a student's research paper comparing Caribbean slavery and the subsequent apprenticeship system, which aimed to gradually transition slaves to freedom but

1. Canidate Name: Roshana Rollins
Candidate Number:
School: North Georgetown Secondary School
School Code:090038
Name of Teacher: Ms. Butters- Franklin
Date of Submission: 31st, January,2017
Tittle of Study: Apprenticeship

2. Content Page
Acknowledgement Page 1
Introduction Page 2
Area of Research Page 3
Rationale Page 4
Background Page 5- 6
Comparison of Apprenticeship and Slavery Page 7
Bibliography Page 8
Appendix Page 9

3. Acknowledgement
The successful completion of this examination would not have been made possible
without the assistance, patience and co-operation of my history teacher and my parents.
Therefore, I am pleased to express thanks to Miss Butters for supporting and valuable time spent
on rendering assistance when needed. I gave thanks to God is giving me the strength and
courage to press on, keeping me through the late nights and finding that determination within me
to complete this SBA.
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4. Introduction
Some historians viewed apprenticeship as a modified form of slavery. Modify means to make a
partial change. This therefore means that they viewed the apprenticeship system as slavery with
few changes.
To the planters it was seen as a period where they could extract the last ounce of labour from the already
disgusted African slaves who had endured the system of slavery for more than two hundred years.
It was enforced for many reasons but most importantly to prepare the ex- slaves for final
freedom. However, there were problems with the apprenticeship system since the apprentices
thought the British Government had ended slavery and that planters were withholding their
freedom. This led to a failure of the apprenticeship system since the planters continued to
oppress the apprentices and the freed blacks refused to allow this.
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5. Area of Research
To what extent did the apprenticeship system serve as a form of reformation to the terms and
conditions of slavery?
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6. Rationale
The researcher chose to pursue this topic to
 Compare the terms of enslavement to the terms of apprenticeship system.
 Examine the failures of the apprenticeship system.
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7. Background
Slavery was a system that proved to be beneficial to the planters but detrimental to the
African slaves. As such they were many attempts to end slavery. This began with the Abolition
Act. Abolitionist kept the issue of slavery alive by introducing it into every session in
parliament. In 1804, William Wilberforce succeeded in getting the Abolition Bill passed by the
House of Commons, but it was defeated and thrown out by the House of Lords. In 1805, an
important success was achieved when the Prime Minister, William Pitt, secured an Order in
Council forbidding the importation of slaves into Trinidad and the Guiana colonies of Essequibo,
Demerara and Berbice, which had recently been acquired from Spain and the Netherlands
respectively. After Pitt’s death in January 1806, his successor Charles James Fox moved a
resolution for the total and immediate abolition of the slave trade. A bill to this effect was
eventually passed in March, 1807 to come into force on 1 January, 1808.
Amelioration was an attempt to improve the conditions of the enslaved Africans, but the
abolitionist worked towards freeing them completely.1
Wilberforce introduced a bill for the compulsory registration of slaves in all colonies.
The foreign secretary then put forward an Amelioration Bill based on the West Indian
Committees Proposals. In 1832 the Society for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery was formed,
aimed at making amelioration part of government policy. A publication called the Anti- Slavery
Monthly Reporter also appeared in 1823. Another philanthropist Member of Parliament,
Thomas Buxton, had taken over from William Wilberforce as the chief of parliamentary
spokesman for abolition. Although amelioration measures were the proposals of the West Indian
Committee, once again legislatives of Jamaica, Barbados, Dominica and St. Vincent ignored
them. The reaction of the West Indian planters together with the ill treatment of William
Shrewsbury in Barbados and John Smith in Demerara, and the harassment of other missionaries
elsewhere angered the abolitionist in England and turned public opinion decisively against the
planters.
Wilberforce called an inquiry into the Smith case and much publicity was given to
Shrewsbury where a Wesleyan Minister was driven out of Barbados after his home and church
had been destroyed. The policy of amelioration was deemed a failure after 1826 and in 1830 was
definitely abandoned in favour of complete emancipation. Thomas Buxton introduced the
Emancipation Bill in 1838. Wilberforce, its farmer champion, was approaching his death. By
the time he died on July 29, 1833 he was assured that emancipation was not as complete as these
words would suggest, because there were clauses in the act about an Apprenticeship System
which delayed complete emancipation until 1838. On 29, August, 1833 the act received royal
assent. Emancipation was to come into effect on August 1, 1838. Orders-In-Council enforced it
on the Crown colonies.
Slave rebellions or violent uprisings of one sort of another took place throughout the time
of slavery. Only one rebellion, that which took place in the French colony of St Domingue in
1791, even turned into a successful revolution. In 1522 this was the first slave revolt in the West
1 “Radica Mahase”,“Caribbean History for Cxc”, Amelioration Proposals Page102.
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8. Indies. Revolts became more frequent throughout the British West Indies in the nineteenth
century as emancipation approached. Many slaves mistook the meaning of the abolition of the
slave trade in 1807 for emancipation. Others thought that their freedom had been granted by the
King but was being withheld by their owners. Rising took place mainly for these reasons in
Jamaica in 1803 and in Barbados in 1804. Three other major revolts succeeded each other in
Barbados, Demerara and Jamaica, with each one being more far-reaching, ruinous and influential
than the one before. Even though there were all of these attempts to end slavery,
“Slaves weren’t freed since planters feared the labour supply would decrease after
emancipation. Planters feared enslaves would abandon plantations and start a new life of their
own on unoccupied lands. This led the colonial office in London and the Planters to set up an
agreement to insert a stage between slavery and freedom”. 2 It would be known as
Apprenticeship system and come to an end in 1840.
Apprenticeship Terms
During the apprenticeship system ,Clauses were amended and the final act was basically
as follows : Apprentices should be provided with food and clothing by the master, slave children
under six years old were to be freed immediately, apprentices should work for not more than
forty-five hours per week without getting pay, non field slaves were to be apprentices for a
period of four years and field slaves for a period of six years, it was illegal for apprentices to
leave the estate without written permission, all apprentices were to work 40 ½ hours per week,
stipendiary magistrates were appointed by the crown to protect the freed Africans against
overwork, maltreatment and abuse, food allowances would continue as during slavery, cutting
down apprentices fruit trees and forbidding them to own livestock and finding faults with
apprentices; work which had to be done over in the apprentices free time.
Antigua was the only country that chose full freedom rather than apprenticeship. Planters
also argued that they needed time to adjust to wage labour because they wanted to extract a lot of
work from ex-slave. They were unwilling to pay for labour per week and tried to bring cases
against ex-slaves so that they could be forced back into the conditions of slavery. “The
apprenticeship system shows the planters in a very bad light since the apprentices didn’t
understand the system. The English Quakers bitterly critised the miserable apprenticeship
scheme since they were against it, Joseph Sturge, Thomas Harvey and two other Englishmen
Visited the West Indies in October, 1836, to see for themselves.”3 “The propaganda was so
effective that the House of Commons proceeded to debate the question of total abolition and on
the 11th April passed the Amendment to the original Abolition Act. In Britain the Abolition Bill
was passed in the House of Commons but rejected in the House of Lords”4 “Apprenticeship was
adopted in all the crown colonies and in the other legislative colonies.
2“R.N Murray”, “Nelsons West Indian History”,1971,Chapter 11, Pages 92-93.
3 “R.N Murray”, “Nelsons West Indian History”,1971,Chapter 11, Page 92
4 “R.N Murray”, “Nelsons West Indian History”,1971,Chapter 11, Page93
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9. Comparison of Apprenticeship and Slavery
Slaves were hanged, or beaten to death while lashed to a cartwheel, or he/ she could be
hung up in an iron cager until he died from hunger and thirst. Punishments were mitigated
during apprenticeship and in some colonies the whip was entirely abandoned. It was only
allowed as a form of judicial punishment. During slavery enslaved women were punished, just
like the enslaved males. They were whipped and beaten for minor offences, chained together,
mutilated, hanged and burnt in protection. Protection for apprentices against overwork,
maltreatment, and abuse was vested in a body of independent stipendiary magistrates. Officials
called Stipendiary Magistrates were put in place to enforce the apprenticeship system. Most of
them were appointed from Britain. Their main duty was to supervise the operation of the act of
Emancipation, to inspect jails and work house, to administer justice and assist in preventing
social and economic disturbances, help maintain peace and they had to come up with a price of
slaves who wanted to buy their freedom. Twenty magistrates died in the first two years because
of the hard work and climate conditions. More over their salaries were low. They received £300
pounds per year in 1834, out of which they had to pay for horses, and accommodations. In
addition to that they were old and the special magistrates became unsuccessful even though some
of them did a very good job under difficult conditions.
Slaves had to work from sunrise and sunset but during apprenticeship,
task workers normally completed their day’s assignment by one or two p.m, having commenced
labour shortly after dawn and having taken an hours rest at breakfast. During slavery, work
seized when it rained but the apprentices were forced to work during heavy downpours so as not
to lose any hours. Pregnant women, during slavery, returned to work six weeks after delivery
but during apprenticeship, they were forced to return to work three weeks after delivery and they
were made to work harder. The Africans could not graze their livestock on the planter’s estate
nor could they use their equipment for their farms. The planters also decide if an apprentice’s
work was not satisfactory thus forcing the worker to do extra work when they could be working
for wages. They also put apprentices in lockups for trumped up charges to await the arrival of the
stipendiary magistrate.In spite of these tribulations, working conditions improved during
apprenticeship.
Slaves still received harsh punishments, forced labour and had the same
social status as they did during slavery. Laws that were passed were burdensome to the Africans
and were in favour of the whites. So therefore,to a little extent the apprenticeship system was a
modification of slavery or slavery with a few changes that are highlighted above. These changes
were given to the planters to soften the blow of emancipation on them. However, the slaves were
still somehow dissatisfied with these changes, hence, they wanted a complete ‘full freedom’.
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10. Bibliography
 Greenwood Robert & Shirley Hamber et al. Emancipation to Emigration, Thailand:
Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2003.
 Green. A William et al. British Slave Emancipation. The Sugar Colonies & the Great
Experiment 1830- 1865, United States: Oxford University Press Inc, 1976.
 Murray N. R et al. Nelson’s West Indian History, Jamaica: The Kingston Press LTD,
1971.
 Sherlock Philip & Parry H. J et al. A Short History of the West Indies, England: The
MacMillan Press LTD London & Barring, 1971.
 Shepherd A Verene &Beckles McD Hilary et al. Freedoms Won, England: Cambridge
University Press, 2006.
 Woodville Emeritus, Thompson O .Alvin & Marshall. K et al. In the Shadow of the
Plantation Caribbean History & Legacy,Barbados: Cave Hill Campus West Indies, 2002.
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11. Appendix
An illustration of a Stipendiary Magistrate Listening to a Slave
An illustration of a slave being whipped by the planter
An illustration of slaves being forced to work on plantations by planters.
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