The complete abolition of slavery throughout the British empire in 1838 carried with it profound implications for the maintenance of order, stability and economic viability in those colonies where social and economic  structures had been largely supported by slave labour. The coercive laws, the repressive police actions, and the barbaric punitive measures that had been instituted to demoralise and control the slave population could not,  after 1838, legally be used to hold together the fabric of a free society.