tuations and conditions were not addressed. When the idea of a transitional period came about the parliamentarians and the abolitionists looked at its benefits from their perspectives and not from that of the slaves. They still considered the Africans’ way of life to be primitive and one of the accepted arguments for Apprenticeship, made by Edward Stanley, was that if the slaves were immediately released they would quickly revert to their ‘savage’ way of life. They also justified the necessity of this gradualism by pointing out that an immediate release of the slaves would cause havoc in the colonies and ruin the planters. They did not seem to realise that in the eyes of the slave, Apprenticeship was just another name for the bondage they were forced to live in before their ‘freedom’ was declared. Also the partiality of this freedom would not satisfy the temperaments of the slaves who after so many years of persecution would want their freedom in its entirety. The aforementioned compensation to the planters of the British Caribbean, which amounted to 20,000,000 pounds, was the subject of much debate in the British Parliament. The abolitionists believed that the sum was too great but in the end James Stephens’ suggestion received approval. The fault with this part of the Act was that the method of division of the compensation, amongst the British islands was not specified. The differing territories and population sizes would cause distinct variables and the power sustained by the planter on the colony could be abused in the workings of the system in an effort to gain as much of the compensatory money as could be gotten. Each planter was to receive benefits according to the valuation of his slaves and the extent of his losses but the process of this valuation was imprecise therefore allowing planters the capacity to take advantage of the British Government’s generosity. The clause w...
