Published by the abolitionist publishers, J. Hatchard & Son, this eye-witness missionary account of slavery in Jamaica was a useful first hand narrative for the growing movement against slavery in the British colonies, and was cited particularly for the positive account it gave of the intellectual capacities of the enslaved. Bickell describes slavery as "one of the greatest evils that ever was inflicted on the human race" (1). Although he tries to establish himself as an impartial witness, implying that the anti-slavery movement in Britain could have got slightly "carried away by the overflowings of humanity" (vi), Bickell was deeply opposed to slavery, and believed that it could not survive much longer in the colonies: "for all good and pious Britons are bound to oppose it, as men and as Christians" (xii).

Five hundred copies of 'The West Indies as they are' were purchased by the Anti-Slavery Society for distribution in 1825 (see Account of the Receipts and Disbursements), and the book was cited in the Society's 1825 annual report, as well as abolitionist pamphlets such as Thomas Clarkson's 'Letter to the Friends of the Slaves on the New Order of Council'. An abridged version was also published in the Christian Observer (1825), and as a ten-page pamphlet: 'The West Indies as they are' (Birmingham: J. Belcher & Son, 1825).