children and consequently employers ceased to offer women "indulgences". Women were now expected to work while pregnant and with small children, though other ex-slaves demanded that these women be exempt from arduous field labour. In some cases, apprentices' protests were effective for producing reforms to the apprenticeship system. In Trinidad, apprentices were granted a five-day work week, masters became required to care for freed children, and workers were compensated for labour performed on a Saturday. A small number of apprentices attempted to purchase their freedom with some managing to successfully do so. Apprentices were appraised in the local courts and high prices hampered slaves' ability to free themselves, given their lack of access to material wealth, which was being systematically withheld from them. However, planters' awareness that apprenticeship's abolition was on the horizon led some to settle on a lower price for manumission outside of the courts. This ensured that planters saw some financial gain. They also hoped that such negotiations would encourage apprentices to continue labouring once freed. James Williams' A Narrative of Events and the anti-apprenticeship campaign A Narrative of Events, since the First of August, 1834, by James Williams, an Apprenticed Labourer in Jamaica is one of the few published first person accounts by a former slave. It was published in a pamphlet in 1837 and was sold, reprinted and circulated across Britain and Jamaica. The narrative played a critical role in the anti-apprenticeship campaign launched by Joseph Sturge and other members of Britain's Central Emancipation Committee. The abolitionists were steadfast in their belief that apprenticeship was merely an continuation of slavery. In 1836, Sturge traveled to Jamaica to gather first hand information about the labour system. While there, he and other anti-apprenticeship activists met James Williams, an apprentice from St. Ann's Parish that worked on the Penshurst Plantation for the Senior family, who shared his experience with the abolitionists. Sturge organized to have his narrative recorded by an amanuensis and published it in hopes of informing the British public about Caribbean labour conditions and gaining widespread support for immediate abolition. The narrative vividly captures James Williams' experiences under the system of apprenticeship in Jamaica. The physical violence meted out apprentices and sexual abuse they faced are central to Williams' narrative. Throughout and in great detail, Williams explains how he was treated unfairly by his master and workhouse prisoners were tied to the treadmills, forced to "dance"