A Narrative of Events: Since the First of August, 1834, by James Williams, an Apprenticed Laborer in Jamaica

Ateenagedslave-turned-apprenticeinnineteenth-centuryJamaicarecordedhisexperiencesintheBritishapprenticeshipsysteminthisbook,whichconstitutesoneoftheonlyautobiographicaltextsbyaCaribbeanslave.WhileworkingasalaboreratapimentoplantationintheSt.Annparish,JamesWilliamssufferedflogging,imprisonment,andotherpunishments.HisnarrativerevealstheuglytruthbehindtheapprenticeshipsystemthatdevelopedaftertheoutlawoftheBritishslavetrade,whichhedeemsevencruelerthantheformersystemofslavery.
Writtenin1837,JamesWilliams'narrativewasaneffectivetoolforabolitionistswhosoughttoendtheapprenticeshipsystem.ThiseditionofhishistoricmemoiralsocontainstheentiretestimonyfromtheCommissionofInquiry,sponsoredbytheColonialOffice,whichvalidatedthetruthofWilliams'account.