Jamaica: The road to Freedom
A statement made by William Knibb, a non-conformist Baptist preacher an abolitionist, at the dawning of Aug 1, 1838 Reflects the mood in Jamaica in relation to emancipation. "The hour is at hand, the Monster is dying...in recounting the mood in his church that night he said- "the winds of freedom appeared to have been set loose, the very building shook at the strange yet sacred joy."


According to the Jamaican Gleaner: Freedom can be said to have arrived in two stages; the first being the early morning of Friday, August 1, 1834. On that day many slaves were said to have walked up hills and climbed trees so as to clearly witness the literal dawning of their freedom. Around the island thousands attended "Divine Services" to give thanks and praise. August 1, 1834, marked the emancipation of all slaves in British colonies but it was a case of freedom with conditions. Although the Abolition Act stated that slavery shall be and is hereby utterly abolished and unlawful, the only slaves truly freed were those not yet born and those under six years of age. All other slaves were to enter a six-year 'apprenticeship' during which they were to be 'apprenticed' to the plantations.

In light of the apprenticeship program implemented after slavery can it be accurately stated that slavery was abolished in Jamaica and the British West Indies in 1838??
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Jamaica: Slavery to Emancipation

For many people today the thought of coming to Jamaica brings one word to the lips; paradise. when one thinks of the sunny beaches with the white sandy shores acting as a stripe to the never ending blue waters.
  
Then on to the miles of nylon like smooth roads and the myriad of dishes and cuisines which continually seduce even the most unsuspecting pallates. All of this coupled with other facts make Jamaica the place to be in 2014,



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but follow me back to some 200 years ago, when the top source of income for the British West Indies was the trade of black Africans know as the trans Atlantic slave trade. Many primitive young Africans would be abducted in the most violent ways from the village and put on a slave ship to the Americas where they would spend the remnants of their days in bitter slavery.
  

WHAT IS THE REACTIONS OF PRESENT DAY JAMAICANS TO SLAVERY? PLEASE SHARE YOUR ANSWERS?