authorities and members of Parliament. Britain's colonial secretary, Lord Glenelg, advocated social and political equality. In order to ensure full inclusion into the body politic, he proposed that colonial governors carry out full investigations of colonial laws and policies to eliminate those that were discriminatory or would hamper ex-slaves' social and economic opportunities. Local planters continued to wield significant power within the colonies following 1838 and though parliament had legislated emancipation, the colonial assemblies dictated how it would be carried out. Many of these officials proved more reluctant to extend extensive rights to the freed slaves. Reform Missionaries, clergymen, and magistrates sought to morally, culturally and spiritually reform former slaves. In their view, enslavement had contributed to their debasement and the development of backwards cultural practices. They encouraged ex-slaves to legally marry, adopt the nuclear family model, and to take on Victorian gender roles which they believed were they path to achieving respectability and upward mobility. The patriarchal gender ideology they espoused dictated that men were to be heads of their households and responsible for providing for their dependents. Child rearing, caregiving, and domestic work were considered women's roles. To some extent, freedmen and women embraced these gender conventions but some aspects of the patriarchal model were incompatible with their economic circumstances, personal preferences and understandings of kinship. Marriage between former slaves did increase with emancipation. However, freedpeople considered their brother- sister, parent-child relationships equally, if not more important. Consequently, having children out of wedlock and single parent households were not uncommon or stigmatized. Missionaries also established schools and encouraged the freed slaves to adopt Christianity, attend church and adopt the latest European fashions. Most did not adopt these practices wholesale. Instead, they took parts of the European model and melded them with their own African cultural practices. Former slaves often partook in leisure activities such as dancing, participating in carnivals, alcohol consumption, and gambling. Authorities and missionaries detested these practices as they considered them antithetical to their reform efforts. Historian Sheena Boa has suggested that because their mobility and choices were no longer controlled by outsiders, enjoyment of their own bodies was one way that freedmen and women "tested the limits of their freedom." Land and labour The export of sugar and other staple crops remained central to the economies of the British West Indies. Agricultural production required a substantial labour force and former slaves were expected to meet