In Wide Sargasso Sea, the novel begins only a few years after Brittain's Emancipation Act took effect. Though technically passed in 1833, it took a full year for the Brittish to free the slaves. In doing so, slave owners were promised compensation of $20,000,000 for their loss of slaves, labor, and as a way for them to be able to afford to offset the costs of this loss. While this compensation was promised, many slave owners such as Antoinette's (Bertha's) parents were not given this money and were then poor, much like how we saw them struggling at the beginning of the novel. Now freed slaves were promised no compensation and were given nothing other than the ability to be apprentices to former slave owners in which they were meant to work for the owners, but were given housing and other amenities. Due to the fact that many plantations were suffering, investors from England such as Mr. Mason, Mr. Rochester, and the Luttrells came to these plantations in the Carribean to get a property at a good rate. This is how we get to meet the other main characters in the novel.

“The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833.” The History Press: Destination for History, History Press, 2019.

KJ