After the success of Sligoville, several other Free Villages were started by Phillippo, including Oracabessa and Sandy Bay. While slavery was officially ended on 1 August 1834, with the Slavery Abolition Act, it was not until the end of apprenticeship in 1838 that all slaves were finally free. The celebration of Emancipation on 1 August 1838 was a joyous time in Spanish Town, with a large turnout of freed slaves. Phillipo was asked by Governor Sir Lionel Smith to lead the procession of the Baptist Church and Congregation of Spanish Town, along with about 2,000 school children and their teachers to Government House, where the Proclamation of Freedom was read to a crowd of more than 8,000 people. In June 1842, Phillippo his wife Hannah and their younger son Edwin, set sail for England. They claimed the trip for health but Philippo also used it to the Missionary Society for permission and funding for a new school and college, known as Calabar College, a type of seminary which he had built with Knibb and Burchell. Calabar College changed its name to Calabar High School in 1912 and still operates today. While in England, Phillippo travelled extensively, lectured to raise funds for the college, and completed the manuscript for his first book. The Phillippos returned to Jamaica in December 1843. The trip in 1843 was Philippo's last major voyage abroad. Other than a few trips to the United States, Phillippo remained in Jamaica for the next 35 years. He never stopped preaching and constantly travelled all over Jamaica to bring the "Word of God" to those who needed it. When his beloved wife, Hannah, died in 1874, he moved to a small cottage outside Kingston. He continued his missionary work until he retired on Sunday, 7 July 1878. Worn out by a long, difficult life in an unfriendly climate, he died on 11 May 1879 in Spanish Town at the age of 81. James Phillippo was buried, along with his wife and daughter, across the street from his beloved Church in Spanish Town. He had built that 50 years before his death and lived to see the end of slavery on the island. He was so well respected by the Jamaican people at all social levels that the funeral was a grand occasion, attracting thousands of former slaves as well as politicians, clergy, and businessmen. In addition to Phillippo's many accomplishments as a minister and champion of human rights, the missionary wrote three books about Jamaica, the most notable being "Jamaica: Its Past and Present State" (1842), published while he was recuperating in England.