2D Social Studies- History - Amelioration, Emancipation and Apprenticeship.
The Amelioration Proposals were:
- Overseers could not carry whips in the fields - Slave marriages were encouraged - Slaves were to have Saturday for market and Sunday to attend mass. - Women should not be flogged - Slave families should not be divided - Slaves could not be sold as a payment of debt - Slaves were to be given religious instruction - Slaves should be allowed to give evidence in court if they had a character witness - All children born after 1823 should be emancipated - Slaves remaining in bondage should be protected from abuse. In the French, many of the proposals were similar including: - Compulsory registration of all slaves - Prohibition of branding and mutilation - Limited corporal punishment - Tax on manumission abolished, making it easier for slaves to buy their freedom.
The Apprentice System
-When the settlers arrived, they were ready to work hard for themselves. -Artisans - knew how to make things by hand were artisans - nails, horseshoes, barrels and even homes -they began to train younger workers. They needed others who could take over their duties if death, disease or old age made them unable to continue. -Apprentices were commonly be sent to live with the artisan. -young apprentices provided their labor in exchange for food, shelter, clothing and training in the craft. -Experienced apprentices became artisans and trained young apprentices -The system was a means of safeguarding the planters. -Basically, the formerly enslaved would have full freedom but the plantations would still have the necessary layout to keep them operational. Features and Conditions The apprenticeship clauses stated that: ⁃ children under 6 were to be free immediately unless their mothers could not care for them. If this was the case they would be apprentices to the estate until they were 21. ⁃ All apprentices were classified as skilled or unskilled workers. ⁃ Skilled workers would serve a 4 year apprenticeship and unskilled workers (agricultural workers) served for 6 years. ⁃ Apprentices would work for 40.5 hours without pay and had to be paid for any additional labor they provided. ⁃ Employers would continue to provide traditional food and clothing allowances and shelter to the apprentices and they continued to be responsible for the sick and aged. ⁃ 100 stipendiary magistrates would supervise the operations of the system. Rules were laid out. ⁃ if an apprentice worked nine hours a day they would have Friday afternoons off to work on their own grounds and prepare vegetables for the Saturday market. ⁃ If they worked eight hours a day for five days a week, as the planters wanted them to do, there was no afternoon free. During this period 'apprentices' could buy their full freedoms whether their masters were in favor of it or not.
What are the amelioration proposals
The amelioration proposals were a list of requests to make the living and working conditions of the slaves better.
Response to the Amelioration Proposals
The white plantation owner in the Caribbean refused to accept the proposals. The proposals were proclaimed in the new colonies, Trinidad, Guyana and St. Lucia which did not have Assemblies. The colonial legislatures in the other colonies were encouraged to implement the measures, but they objected to the proposals because they saw them as imperial interference and claimed that the measures would make the enslaved population unruly and insubordinate. - The Governor of Guyana was reluctant to post the proposals as he thought it would start a riot. - The planters in Barbados refused to take on the proposals as they believed that there were enough laws and regulations to appease and improve slave lives. - In Jamaica, the revised slave code of 1831 went directly against the amelioration proposals in saying that slaves could not go to market and were put to work all Sunday instead of attending mass. Also the code stated that overseers were to have whips in the field. Overall the amelioration proposals of 1823 failed miserably due to the response of the planter class. Around this time Parliamentary reform occurred and more of the members of the West Indian interest were losing their political power. The negative response of the planters showed the British and French Government that the planters were unwilling to change and therefore turned favorably toward emancipation.
EMANCIPATION
the freeing of slaves. Enforcement of the trade's abolition After 1807 British anti-slavery movement got bigger. The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade gave way to the African Institution. Aim was to ensure new legislation was enforced and other countries followed Britain. Slave registration by 1817 -To suppress the slave trade and illegal traffic between the West Indian colonies. -Required regular reports of changes slave holdings, births, deaths, purchases or sales. -Was also central registry in London. First moves towards emancipation in 1823 -Leading members of the African Institution- Thomas Clarkson, William Wilberforce, and Zachary Macaulay, organised the Anti-Slavery Society. -It called improve slave conditions and gradual emancipation/complete freedom. -Was a national organisation. Large numbers of women. The national female petition 1833 contained 187,157 signatures- largest single anti- slavery petition. -In 1823 George Canning- foreign secretary, introduced the 'amelioration' followed in 1824 by Order to improving the condition of slaves in Trinidad Slave rebellions -1816 Barbados Revolution, sometimes referred to as Bussa's Rebellion or the Easter Rebellion -1823 rebellion in Demerara, led by Jack Gladstone -1831-1832 Christmas Rebellion in Jamaica, led by Sam Sharpe, which involved over 20,000 slaves (500 killed) and is said to have caused more than one million pounds in damage. Increasing pressure for abolition of slavery -The 29 August 1833 Emancipation Act passed - presented by Lord Stanley provided for the gradual abolition of slavery -1 August 1834 took effect. Everyone over the age of six had to serve an apprenticeship of between four and six years. -enslaved persons celebrated and it was a day of religious celebration and cultural activity in the British Caribbean. The 668,000 enslaved Africans -Antigua and the Bahamas abolish apprenticeship. -new legislation awarded colonial planters twenty million pounds in compensation. Opposition to apprenticeship -Abolitionists exposed failing apprenticeship system and succeeded in bringing an early end to apprenticeship. -Between May and August all of the colonies passed legislation ending apprenticeship on 1 August 1838 (which is why this date and not 1834 is traditionally recognised in the British Caribbean as the anniversary of the ending of slavery).
