with their struggle for total emancipation, in which they at last
succeeded. In 1833 an Act of Parliament was passed, by which, after the
1st of August, 1834, slavery was to give place to an apprenticeship of
four or six years, according to the status of the slave, the former
term for house-servants and the latter for labourers on the
plantations, or "predials." Every child born after that date was to be
entirely free, and here came in one of the greatest blemishes of the
law. These poor infants belonged to nobody; their mothers cared little
for them, and it could not be expected that the planters would pay to
keep up the old system of superintendence. Even those who had been
instrumental in getting the law passed now began to make comparisons
between the position of the child-bearing woman under the old and new
systems. Hitherto they were unable to find words harsh enough to use in
condemning slavery--now they began to find that it had its good points.
Then the new system required new administrators, and, to prevent any
suspicion of bias, magistrates were brought from England. Yet these very
same unbiassed gentlemen ordered flogging for the men and the treadmill
and dark cell for the women. The Quaker delegates sent out to inspect
the result of their work were horrified. They said that the cat was
worse than the old whip, and that the apprenticeship system caused ten
times more suffering than slavery.

And such was really the case. The negroes could no longer be kept under
subordination--they even claimed entire freedom at once. Several
disturbances took place before they could be made to understand that
they had to work seven and a half hours every day, to pay for their
homes, provision grounds, and other allowances. In Demerara the Governor
addressed them as erring children, telling them that they could not
all be masters, and that every one must work. They had never seen a
white man handle the shovel or the hoe--he was free--now they had
attained to the same condition, the same coveted freedom from hard
labour must be theirs also. True, there were free negroes, some of whom
had learnt trades, but even they were above working in the field. Why
should free negroes work? Certainly not for their wives and children.
The women got their allowances, and the planter had hitherto looked
after the children. The negro had no house rent to pay, his two suits of
clothing came regularly every year, and if he was sick the doctor