494 HISTORY 



dials, and (2) non-praedials. The praedial apprentices were those, -who as 

 slaves had been employed in agriculture or in the mannfacture of colonial 

 produce.'*' Of this class those employed on lands belonging to their owners 

 were designated as praedials attached to the soil/*'' and were not removable from 

 the plantations on which they were employed, without the consent of a special 

 justice of the peace/'" Those employed on lands not belonging to their former 

 owners became praedials unattached, and were removable at the discretion of 

 the employers. All slaves not included in the above description, such as da)^ 

 laborers, household servants, skilled artisans, sailors and others became non- 

 praedials.'*' Children below the age of- twelve were excluded from the class 

 of praedial apprentices, except those who had been employed in agriculture for 

 twelve months previous to the passage of the abolition act."'' The intention 

 of Parliament in passing the act had been that the non-praedials 

 should be entirely freed after a term of four years, and the praedials 

 after six years, thus freeing the colonies of the whole system on August 

 1, 1841,"*" but at the end of the four-year term of the non-praedials the Colony 

 released all its laborers from involuntary servitude, fully accomplishing the 

 immediate objects of the friends of the emancipation.^^ The Bahama negro 

 was now a freeman, which it was the intention of his benefactors in Gveat 

 Britain to make him. But his freedom was abridged in many respects, as we 

 shall see, and he was far from being wholly responsible for himself or from 

 being thrown upon his own resources. The Secretaries of State for the Col- 

 onies were very fond of writing of the negro apprentices as they did of " any 

 other freemen,"' or '" any other of His ^Majesty's subjects." The colonists on 

 the other hand were reluctant to admit that the negro was a freeman, or to 

 grant him the rights which the liome government demanded for him.^'* They 



-^^ Imp. Stats., loc. cit., sec. 4. 



"^'^ Loc. cit. 



=«^5 William IV, 8 (10). 



=^*Imp. Stats., 3 and 4 William IV, 73 (4). and Bahama Statutes, 4 Wil- 

 liam IV, 21. 



=«=Imp. Stat, 3 and 4 William IV, 73 (4). 



^'° Loc. cit., sees. 5 and 6. This would not have prevented the holding of 

 children bound out until they reached the twenty-first year of age, from being held 

 after August 1, 1841; nor those under sentence for an extension of the term of 

 apprenticeship for attempted desertion or other offense. 



"*' On the release of the praedials, see 2 Vic, 1. 



^'^See on this Sess. P., 1835, 50 (part 2), p. 253 (59), Ds. of Secretary Rice to 

 Lieutenant-Governor Balfour in which he criticises the auxiliary statute of the 

 Bahamas. Also H. V., 1834 (extra session), pp. 103-104, report of House committee 

 on the objections to their enactment. See further concessions by the Assembly in 

 the statute, 5 William IV, 8. 



