By James Williams

In A Narrative of Events Since the First of August, 1834, James Williams, a Jamaican “apprentice” (former slave), describes his experiences under the British apprenticeship system that was established as a transition period from slavery to free labour to facilitate the gradual abolition of slavery within the British empire in 1833. His account tells of the brutal punishments he had to endure, including numerous floggings and imprisonments. He also describes the prison conditions where the use of the treadmill was common, as well as how women were constantly abused in many ways. Williams concludes that the system of apprenticeship worsened the conditions of Jamaican ex-slaves, as the former slave-owners used the Jamaican legal system to constantly harass and punish them.

An excerpt from A Narrative of Events Since the First of August, 1834:
I have been very ill treated by Mr. Senior and the magistrates since the new law come in. Apprentices get a great deal more punishment now than they did when they was slaves; the master take spite, and do all he can to hurt them before the free come;—I have heard my master say, “Those English devils say we to be free, but if we is to free, he will pretty well weaken we, before the six and the four years done; we shall be no use to ourselves afterwards.”