Catalogue description Despatches; Apprentices. This volume covers a period after the termination, on 1 August...

Despatches; Apprentices. This volume covers a period after the termination, on 1 August 1838, of the transitional scheme of compulsory labour known as 'apprenticeship' which was introduced by the 1834 Emancipation Act. Despite its title, therefore, its contents are concerned with the regulation of the newly freed working population. Papers include:

• abstracts and reports of appeals heard before the Assistant Court of Appeal;
• question of whether magistrates are empowered to inflict corporal punishment, and case of prisoners sentenced to hard labour refusing to work;
• correspondence relating to legislation concerning: the Assistant Court of Appeal, marriage, prison administration [with printed 'Rules and Regulations for the Government of the Rural Station Prisons' and of the Bridgetown Gaol together with miscellaneous papers], trespass and stock trespass, Martinique earthquake relief, the police, relief of the destitute poor, 'for the impartial and equitable settlement of questions arising between proprietors of estates and the labouring population', and 'to prevent the clandestine deportation of young persons from this Island';
• petition calling for extension of franchise;
• five plans of prisons with water-colour illustrations of the exteriors;
• correspondence concerning legal fees;
• comparative tables of punishments given by the courts during the periods 1 December 1837-28 February 1838 and 1 December 1838-28 February 1839;
• comparative table of numbers of complaints brought and dismissed and punishments given in the periods 1 December 1837-1 March 1838 [against apprentices] and the same period in 1838-1839 [against free labourers];
• printed correspondence from police magistrates concerning 'an approaching scarcity of Provisions';
• address to the Queen on behalf of 'the recently enfranchised portion of the black and colored population' [with names of Cushey Alleyne, John E Pear, Cuffy Manning, Edward Thorpe, King Cudjoe, Osioe [?] Smith, John W Gashy, James Goring, Cozah Boyce, James Smith, Samuel Cobham, John Payne, Edward Haith and Mally [?] Brereton;
• similar address to the governor from the labourers of the parish of St George [with names of Cushy Alleyne, John E Pear, Cuffy Manning, Edward Thorpe, Samuel Cobham and James Goring] with copy of the governor's reply and report of a conversation between a delegation and the acting private secretary;
• reports from police magistrates and the inspector of rural police on the working of the 'Free System';
• expulsion of workers from estates;
• statistics of cases heard by Court of Grand Sessions.