William Lloyd and I. Underwood (Lithographer), “Chapel Built by Apprentices on Belvidere Estate,” plate 11 opp. p. 184, 20 cm., from Letters from the West Indies, during a visit in the autumn of 1836, and the spring of 1837. London: Darton and Harvey; etc., 1839.
In 1836, Dr. William Lloyd accompanied three friends—Joseph Sturge, Thomas Harvey, and John Scoble—on a visit to the West Indies. The trip, organized by abolitionist and philanthropist Joseph Sturge (1793–1859), aimed to observe the apprenticeship system implemented after the Abolition Act of 1833. Sturge, Harvey, and Lloyd, all Quakers, were skeptical that apprenticeship was an improvement from enslavement. In 1838, Sturge published a critical account of their findings with Thomas Harvey in The West Indies in 1837; Being the Journal of a Visit to Antigua, Montserrat, Dominica, St. Lucia, Barbadoes, and Jamaica. Following Sturge’s example, Lloyd published Letters from the West Indies, During a Visit in the Autumn of 1836, and the Spring of 1837. In letter 12, he details his visit to Belvidere Estate, also mentioned by Sturge and Harvey. They describe the owner as “kind and indulgent to the slaves” and noted that part of the estate reserved for formerly enslaved workers had “large and comfortable” houses.
Lloyd described Belvidere as a noble estate, highlighting a chapel built by the inmates of the “sick house,” spacious enough for hundreds but devoid of luxuries like mahogany, glass, or doors, emphasizing its simplicity. Sturge and Harvey interpreted the chapel as “a convincing proof of the desire of the negroes for religious instruction.”
He also recounts meeting an apprentice named Aristus, whom he described as “an intelligent negro” and their “Cicerone through the village.” Notably, he compares Aristus to Aspasia, a recognized intellectual in ancient Athens who was a metic—a foreigner with some privileges of citizenship—and the companion of the prominent Greek politician Pericles. Lloyd ended with a detailed description of Belvidere’s provision grounds:
The provision grounds are in the mountains, and the watchmen being removed, cattle and thieves destroy the fruits of their exertions; so that instead of having provisions to sell, they suffer scarcity themselves, only being allowed one pound of salt fish per week; in crop time they are defrauded and overworked, and these teasing impositions, which are beneath a proprietor’s dignity, destroy their peace
Accounts like this show how apprenticeship came with its own hardships, which meant former enslaved peoples lives had not changed much since abolition.
William Lloyd, M.D. Letters from the West Indies, during a visit in the autumn of 1836, and the spring of 1837. London: Darton and Harvey; etc, 1839.