Volume Thirteen - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - even more aspects - Slavery - echoes of the past . . .

The Apprenticeship System on Jamaica (1834–1838) : Immediately following the 1833 - Act for the Abolition of Slavery, which was effective from 1st August 1834, a transitional 'Apprenticeship' system was introduced, effectively indentured servitude, which required all slaves to work for their former slave-masters for 40 hours per week without remuneration. This resulted in many cases of abuse of the system and subsequently this Apprenticeship, transitional approach, was terminated two years earlier than planned, effectively granting freedom to all those enslaved on the 1st of August 1838.

The abolition of slavery and the end of the 'Apprenticeship' system brought about the financial failure of many plantations on the island of Jamaica given that the majority of the enslaved were no longer prepared to work for their former masters.

The Effects of Abolition upon Bristol in the 1830's : Bristol of the 1830's was no longer a prosperous place and the economic centre of gravity had shifted northwards to Liverpool and Bristol was no longer the second port of the country! So many empty pockets and hungry stomachs especially amongst lesser skilled workers meant, for example, by 1831, with the impending collapse of the plantation trade due to emancipation, a meeting of sailors expressed hostility to the depression in the West India trade.

Subsequently, the Bristol Riots of 1831-32 stemmed both from political reform and corruption, unemployment, coupled with extremely low living standards which were well below the country average.

Emancipation in 1833 was a great blow to all those with West India interests and especially to those who had interests in the Jamaican plantations since it ended the plantation's system of recruiting labour and of a long established way of life.

Those whom had interests in processing the imported raw sugar in Bristol were obviously adversely affected and they had to source sugar from elsewhere. Slavery, however, continued in the production of sugar from places such as Cuba and thus sugar processing continued in Bristol.