Slavery in the British West Indies

The book describes the abolition of slavery in the British West Indies as both a major change in the condition of the enslaved and a turning point in the region’s religious prospects. Its account stresses the contrast between earlier persecution in Jamaica and the new opportunity for missionary work, interpreting the change as providentially opening a door for the gospel.

Slavery and Its Abolition

The author calls slavery in the British West Indies cruel and worse than pagan slavery, and states that it had been abolished. The passage does not detail the legal process or give a date; it emphasizes the change’s significance for people subjected to the system and for those seeking to preach among them.

Jamaica Before and After the Change

The account recalls that Christian disciples in Jamaica had recently suffered the destruction of their places of worship, the pillaging of their property, imprisonment, and murder. Against this background, it says that Jamaica now lay open to missionary work and that missionaries had entered a field ready for harvest. The juxtaposition marks a sharp change in the conditions for religious activity, without specifying that abolition alone caused every part of that change.

Missionary Opportunity and Providence

The author links the end of slavery to the possibility of preaching the gospel to people harmed by the system. Rather than treating this opening as merely a political development, the book presents it as the work of the providential Lord of Heaven, who removed obstacles and made missionary labor possible. The state’s significance in the account therefore lies in both the end of an oppressive institution and the new access it afforded to Christian preaching.