Few, if any, historians have studied slavery in Canada as thoroughly as Marcel Trudel has. While Trudel’s work covers only
French Canada, that does not mean slavery did not exist in English Canada, only that anglophone historians have not paid much attention to it.
Originally published in 1960 as L’Escalvage au Canada français, with updated editions published in 2004 and 2009, Trudel’s book was not translated into English until 2013. One is left to wonder why. After all, it is groundbreaking work that shatters the stereotype of Canada as a refuge for those seeking freedom from slavery. In fact, Trudel’s writing was so provocative in the 1960s that he was ostracized by Quebec historians, and he left his home province to pursue academic freedom at the University of Ottawa.
Trudel painstakingly combed through institutional records and other materials and estimated that, over a two-hundred-year period, French Canada was home to at least 4,185 legally owned slaves. Two thirds of them were Aboriginals, the rest were black. That’s a very small number compared with the 250,000 slaves who worked in the sugar plantations of the French West Indies in 1744 alone, plus the hundreds of thousands who toiled in the cotton fields of the American south.
What Trudel reveals in Canada’s Forgotten Slaves — to the chagrin of some Canadian historians — is that the leaders of New
France lobbied hard for slave labour. Workers were in short supply in the colony, and relatively high-priced. Also, there was the problem of elderly landowners who became infirm and had to rely on their adult children just to survive. If the elderly were able to own slaves to do the farm work, they would not need to rely on their own offspring for help.
Under Governor Brisay de Denonville, the colony in 1689 secured King Louis XIV’s permission to keep slaves in New France
(France itself had abolished slavery but allowed the practice in its colonies). However, the king and his advisors were cautious
about sending a slave ship from Africa to Quebec because of the expense involved. They warned that blacks from Africa would not survive the cold climate of Quebec. One New France official countered, saying the slaves would be dressed in beaver skins. Not only would the Africans stay warm, the oil and sweat of their bodies would cause the long guard hairs of the beaver pelts to fall out, leaving a more desirable and valuable fur. There’s no record to suggest this was actually done.
No slave ship ever docked in Quebec. The slaves that were obtained usually arrived from the Thirteen Colonies as war booty
or through smuggling. Aboriginals enslaved their enemies and sold them to white colonists. Slaves in French Canada were owned by people in every level of society — including merchants, land owners, government officials, and clergy. For instance, Trudel lists the Jesuits as owning a total of forty-six.
Under the British regime, slavery continued. Governor James Murray owned at least one. Late-eighteenth-century newspapers often advertised slaves alongside animals. Trudel’s book suggests there were slave auctions in Quebec, but they were rare. “Slaves usually remained the property of a single master, which may have meant that slavery had less of a commercial and more of a humane nature,” concluded Trudel.
The slaves were generally put to work on domestic duties, often as cooks. A few were employed as weavers, some blacks had trades, and some Amerindians served as voyageurs and boatmen. As Trudel points out, in Canada slaves were often seen as status symbols by those who owned them.
This changed as the anti-slavery movement gained ground in the late eighteenth century. Slave owners, or would-be owners,
saw the writing on the wall. By the time the British government put an end to slavery throughout the British Empire in 1833, there were virtually no slaves in Canada.
George Tombs’ translation of Trudel’s book is well done. The numerous graphs and charts are uncomplicated and easy to digest. All in all, it’s a rare find — an academic work, translated from another language, that sparkles with clarity and is absorbing to read.
— Nelle Oosterom (Read bio)
Nelle Oosterom is the Senior Editor of Canada's History magazine.