melioration

The act of ameliorating, or the state of being ameliorated; making or becoming better; improvement; melioration.

The experiment of immediate abolition in Antigua and the Bermudas, and of the apprenticeship in the other Colonies, has established the following facts: That, while melioration is a great improvement on chattel slavery, yet immediate and complete emancipation is far preferable: That either change is safe to the person and property of the master: That, for either, it is rather the master than the slave who needs preparation.

If the consolations of true religion are proffered, they are either spurned with anger, or merely produce an evanescent melioration.

While disappointments and misfortunes are often the origin of insanity, a sudden melioration in circumstances, and unexpected pleasing intelligence have been also known to derange the intellects.

Although, as before mentioned, the general assembly of the Leeward Islands had, during a meeting at St. Kitts, in 1798, passed the “Melioration Act,” with the hopes of restricting the owners of slaves from excessive cruelty in their dealings with their negroes.