We have only room to say that the masters universally regarded the system as a part of the compensation or bonus to the slaveholder and not as a preparatory school for the slave.  By law they were granted a property in the uncompensated labor of the slaves for six years; but the same law, by taking away the sole means of enforcing this labor, in fact threw the masters and slaves into a six years’ quarrel in which they stood on something like equal terms.  It was surely not to be wondered if the parties should come out of this contest too hostile ever to maintain to each other the relation of employer and employed.  This six years of vexatious swinging like a pendulum over the line between bondage and liberty was well calculated to spoil all the gratitude and glory of getting across.

It was early discovered that the masters generally were disposed to abuse their power and get from their apprentices all that could by any means be extorted.  The friends of humanity in Great Britain were aroused, Mr. Sturge, a distinguished philanthropist of Birmingham, accompanied by Messrs. Scohle, Harvey, and Lloyd, proceeded to the West Indies on a mission of inquiry, and prosecuted their investigation contemporaneously with Messrs. Thome and Kimball.  Their Report produced a general conviction in England, that the planters had forfeited all claim to retain their authority over the apprentices, and the government was accordingly petitioned immediately to abolish the system.  This it was loth to do.  It caused inquiries to be instituted in the colonies, especially in Jamaica, with the evident hope of overthrowing the charges of Mr. Sturge.  The result more than confirmed those charges.  The government still plead for delay, and brought in a bill for the improvement of the apprenticeship.  In the progress of these proceedings, urged on as they were by the heaven-high enthusiasm of the British nation, many of the planters clearly perceived that their chance of power during the remaining two years of the apprenticeship had become worth less to them than the good will which they might get by voluntarily giving it up.  Whether it was this motive operating in good faith, or a hope to escape philanthropic interference for the future by yielding to its full claim, and thus gain a clear field to oppress under the new system of wages, one thing is certain the chartered colonies, suddenly, and to the surprise of many, put the finishing stroke to the system and made their apprentices free from the 1st of August, 1838.  The crown colonies have mostly imitated their example.

The following table exhibits the extent and population of these colonies.