Slavery by another name

The 1833 Abolition Act put an end to female flogging. Clause 17 stated that no other person than the S.M. had the right to punish apprentices and that they nor ‘any court, judge or justice [could] punish any female apprentice by whipping or beating her person’. ¹ Female apprentices who had not done their work properly or had committed other offences against their employer were sent to a S.M. who usually sentenced them to time and labour in the workhouse. ² The workhouses were under the control of the custos (the chief magistrate) and the justices of the parish. They had the power to appoint the supervisor and other officers and to devise the rules and regulations of the institution. To ensure that the officers adhered to the regulations, workhouse committees appointed Visiting Local Magistrates (hereafter, V.L.M.s). These men inspected the workhouse on a regular basis and ordered the punishment of inmates who had disobeyed the institution’s rules. ³