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The West Indies in 1837; being the journal of a visit to Antigua, Montserrat, Dominica, St. Lucia, Barbados, and Jamaica; undertaken for the purpose of ascertaining the actual condition of the Negro population of those islands. By Joseph Sturge and Thomas Harvey.

Friends House Library, London. Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature, University of London. British Library.

West Indies British Caribbean Colonies Apprenticeship Post-Slavery Antigua Jamaica Barbados

This journal of a visit to the Caribbean by a group of abolitionists (John Scoble, William Lloyd, Thomas Harvey and Joseph Sturge) records their impressions of the apprenticeship system in the British colonies, particularly in Jamaica, and the effects of immediate emancipation in Antigua, where apprenticeship was not applied. They describe conditions in colonial institutions such as the prisons, schools, churches and legal courts, and the effects of abolition on both former slaves and masters. Sturge and Harvey also visited the French colonies of Martinique and Guadeloupe, in order to give a contrasting portrayal of the contination of plantation slavery there.

Contains numerous appendices, which include population statistics, comparisons of estate expenses during slavery and during apprenticeship, results of court cases, testimonies of the apprentices, colonial legislation etc. Also contains copies of the petitions of the free coloured population of Martinique in favour of the abolition of slavery, in French (xxii-xxiii). Second edition, revised and corrected, also published by Hamilton, Adams & Co., 1838, contains maps of the West Indies.