Whitehall in England had announced in 1833 that slaves would be totally freed by 1840.

In the meantime, the government informed slaves that they must remain on their owners’ plantations and would have the status of "apprentices" for the next six years.

In the new British colony of Trinidad, on the 1st of August 1834, an unarmed group of mainly elderly Negroes being addressed by the Governor at Government House about the new laws, began chanting: "Pas de six ans. Point de six ans" ("Not six years. No six years"), shouting down the Governor.

Peaceful protests had continued until a resolution to abolish apprenticeship was passed and de facto freedom was achieved.

Full emancipation for all is legally granted ahead of schedule on August 1, 1838, making Trinidad the first British colony with slaves to completely abolish slavery.

1838 also sees the abolition of the "apprenticeship" system in Jamaica, Barbados, and the Leeward and Windward Islands.

The British West Indies plantations, which have imported almost four million enslaved Africans over the past few centuries, are left with only four hundred thousand blacks, now free.