A Narrative of Events, since the First of August, 1834 (review)

This new edition of an important slave narrative is especially valuable because of the fine introduction by Diana Paton, which places the Williams pamphlet and story within the broader tradition of slave narratives of the Americas. The pamphlet is accompanied by the evidentiary minutes of an inquiry held in Jamaica following the publication of this and other relevant documents; these minutes help illuminate the context and the events that Williams relates. Williams was freed in 1837 by the English Quaker abolitionist Joseph Sturge and then brought to Britain. Sturge arranged for Williams to write a memoir of his experiences as an apprentice in Jamaica, in order to expose its evils to the British public. He also arranged for a Scottish doctor, Archibald Palmer, who had served as a stipendiary magistrate in Jamaica, to take down Williams' narrative and prepare it for publication.

Although Diana Paton situates Williams' narrative within the Atlantic tradition of slave narratives, she also demonstrates its unique characteristics. Williams was not a slave, but an apprentice. His narrative details his experiences under apprenticeship, the system Britain established as a transition from slavery to free labor following the abolition of slavery within the British empire in 1833. The narrative only covers a period of less than three years, instead of the more usual autobiography telling a life story of slavery and final escape to freedom. Instead, Williams documents a brutal history of punishment, in which he suffered seven floggings and four periods of imprisonment. His vivid description of the prison conditions for Jamaican apprentices, including the brutality of the treadmill and the appalling treatment meted out to women, provided some of the ammunition British abolitionists needed to attack the apprenticeship system and force its early end. The accompanying Report of Evidence, from the inquiry that followed the publication of Williams's account, offers, in Paton's words, "rich material for analysis of sexual politics during apprenticeship" (p. xliii). The evidence from the inquiry corroborates Williams' claim of the sexual abuses practiced on women prisoners.

Paton's careful editorial work succeeds in demonstrating how the ex-slaves of Jamaica helped first to expose the evils of the apprenticeship system, and with the assistance of British abolitionists, ultimately succeeded in bringing it down. She also details the important role played by African Baptist Church leaders in Jamaica in this campaign. James Finlayson, a former apprentice who had purchased his own freedom, was the leader of the Browns Town Baptist Church. He played a key part in the decision to select James Williams to accompany Sturge to Britain, further proof of the contribution made by the African population of Jamaica towards securing their own full freedom. As Diana Paton confirms, "the early abolition of apprenticeship was a real victory for the apprentices" (p. xlvi). This new edition helps both to place the abolition of apprenticeship in the British Caribbean within the wider story of abolition throughout the Americas, and to highlight the key roles slaves and ex-slaves played, both in Jamaica and elsewhere, as agents in their own emancipation.