FOOTNOTES:
[1] Quoted by the Archivist of Quebec in the work cited (infra) at p. 109, from F. X. Garneau, Histoire du Canada, 4th Ed., Vol. II, p. 167. See note 2 for translation.
[2] F. X. Garneau, Histoire du Canada, 1st Ed., Vol. II, p. 447. Andrew Bell, History of Canada, Montreal, 1862 (translated from Garneau's work). Vol. I, p. 440, treats the statement of Garneau somewhat slightingly. His translation reads: "In 1689, it was proposed to introduce Negroes to the colony. The French ministry thought the climate unsuitable for such an immigration and the project was given up. Thus did Canada happily escape the terrible curse of Negro Slavery." Bell's note, pp. 440, 441, shows that he understood what the facts actually were.
The translation of the two passages follows:
"We think we should mention here a determination which is honorable to the French Government. It is the resolve not to encourage the introduction of slaves into Canada, the colony which Louis XIV preferred to all the others by reason of the warlike character of its inhabitants—the colony which he wished to make in the image of France, to fill with a brave noblesse and a population truly national, Catholic, French, without an admixture of foreign races. In 1688, it was proposed to have Negroes there as farm laborers: the minister replied that he feared that they would die there by the change of climate, and that the project would be futile. That, so to speak, destroyed forever an enterprise which would have struck our society with a great, and terrible plague. It is true that in the succeeding century, the Code Noir of the Antilles was extended into Louisiana, it is true that there were ordinances as to slavery there; but, nevertheless, slavery did not prevail in Canada. There were scarcely any slaves at the time of the conquest. That event increased the number of them a little; they later disappeared entirely."
"That was sufficient to wreck a scheme which would have engrafted in our society that great and terrible plague which paralyzes the energies of so considerable a part of the American Union, slavery, that plague unknown under our northern sky."
It will be seen that Garneau does not say or suggest that slavery was entirely unknown in French Canada, but only that it did not "reign" (ne régnait point), i.e., was not prevalent; that while there were a few sporadic cases, the disease was not endemic, and it did not become a plague.
For the proposal of 1688-9, see my The Slave in Canada, pp. 1, 2 and notes (Journal of Negro History, Vol. V, No. 3, July 1920, and published separately by The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History Washington, 1920).
[3] Rapport de L'Archiviste de la Province de Quebec pour 1921-1922 ... Ls—A. Proulx Imprimeur de Sa Majeste le Roi /1922: large 8 vo., pp. 452. This Report is well printed on good paper, with excellent arrangement and faultless proof reading; both in form and in matter it is a credit to the able and learned Archivist, M. Pierre-Georges Roy, Litt.D., F. R. S. Can., and to the Government of Quebec. To anyone with a knowledge of French, the publications of this Department are of inestimable value on the early history of that part of Canada.
[4] "Le nommé Nicolas, neigre de nation" was present with vendor and purchaser before the Notaries, Boisseau and Barolet, in the office of the latter at Quebec. The Vendor says that he had acquired the Negro from Sieur de St. Ignace de Vincelotte.
[5] From the official Report of General James Murray, Governor of Quebec, to the Home Government June 5, 1762, it appears that he considered the livre worth 2 shillings sterling, about 48 cents.
General Murray's Report will be found in Drs. Shortt and Doughty's Documents relating to the Constitutional History of Canada, 1759-1791, Ottawa, 1918 (2d. Edit.), pp. 47-81. It is, however, quite clear that the evaluation is too high. The livre was the old French monetary unit which was displaced by the franc. In the first ordinance passed by the civil government at Quebec, the ordinance of September 14, 1764, the value of a French crown or six livre piece was fixed at 6/8, making the livre 13-1/3 pence sterling (about 26 cents). The Ordinance of March 29, 1777, 17 George 3, c. IX, made the "french crown or piece of six livres tournois" worth 5/6; and the same value was assigned to it in Upper Canada by the Act (1796) 36 George 3, c. I, s. 1 (U. C.)—the livre was worth not far from 20 cents of our present money. This was the livre tournois. The livre of Paris was also in use until 1667 and was worth a quarter more than the livre tournois.
[6] "Cinq neigres esclaves dont deux hommes et trois femmes et filles"—names and ages not given; but the slaves are identified by the statement that the purchaser had seen them "chez la dame Cachelièvre." The witnesses were Louis Lambert and Nicolas Bellevue of Quebec and the Notary was Pinguet. The vendor, Réaume, signed but the purchaser St. Germain did not, "ayant déclaré ne sçavoir écrire ni signer."
[7] "Negre esclave"—the spelling vacillates between "neigre," "negre," and "nègre." I have not found the first form in French literature; the word comes from the mediaeval "Niger." See Du Cange, sub voc. The word no doubt had the usual variations; modern French has only the last form, i.e., nègre. My French Canadian friends cannot help me as to the spelling; but they tell me of a French Canadian saying "Un plan de negre" meaning "Un plan qui n'a ni queue ni tête," but this is probably only jealousy.
[8] "With only the clothes he stands in at the time of delivery and three shirts." "Shirt" has no gender in French.
[9] Dunière receives the right to dispose of the Negro, Jean Monsaige, as his own property, but Damien does not undertake delivery: The slave being absent since the previous evening (perhaps like Eliza knowing of a proposed sale), Dunière takes all the risk of obtaining him without recourse to anyone in case of failure; and Damien sells him without any warranty. This and the fifth are the only instances, until the seventeenth, of a Negro having a family name. The notaries are Barolet and Panet.
[10] The purchaser undertakes all risks, the price remains payable in any event. "Laquelle somme demeure acquise au d. s. Dassier par convention expresse quelque événement qui puisse arriver au d. neigre d'en cy-devant aux risques et perils du d. s. Delzenne."
[11] As to Panis, Panise, see The Slave in Canada, p. 2 and note 4. The name Pani or Panis, anglicized into Pawnee, was used generally in Canada as synonymous with "Indian Slave" because the slaves were usually taken from the Pawnee tribe. It is held by some that the Panis were a tribe wholly distinct from the tribe known among the English as Pawnees, e.g., Drake's History of the Indians of North America.
[12] We are told, Littré, Dictionnaire de la Langue Française, 4to, Paris, 1869, Sub voc. Nègre: "Louis XIII se fit une peine extrême de la loi qui rendait esclaves les nègres de ses colonies; mais quand on lui eut bien mis dans l'esprit que c'était la voie la plus sûre pour les convertir, il y consentit." (Montesquieu Esp. des Lois, XV, 4) "Louis XIII was much troubled concerning the law which made slaves of the Negroes in his Colonies; but when he had become impressed with the view that that was the surest way to convert them, he consented to the law,"—the ever recurring excuse for the violation of natural right.
There was much discussion whether it was lawful to hold a fellow Christian in slavery; and it was a distinct advantage that a slave was not baptized. In 1781, the Legislature of the Province of Prince Edward Island passed an Act, 21 George 3, c. 15, expressly declaring that baptism of slaves should not exempt them from bondage. The notaries in the present case were Pinguet and Boisseau and the act was passed in the latter's office.
[13] The purchaser here is the vendor Joseph de la Tesserie, Sieur de la Chevrotière, of the first transaction—he is also the purchaser in No. 9 post.
[14] The notaries were Pinguet and Boisseau and the act was passed in the latter's office.
[15] "Argent des Iles," West-Indian currency to be invested in Martinique. The notaries were Barolet and Panet and the act was passed in the latter's office.
[16] See note 12 supra: The notaries were Barolet and Panet and the act was passed in the latter's office.
[17] French "senaut," English "snow," a sort of vessel with two masts. The notaries were Sanguinet and Du Laurent; the act was passed in the latter's office.
[18] The notary was Barolet who signed the act as did Vallée, De Chalet, and two witnesses, Charles Prieur, Perruquier, and Jean Liquart, merchant.
[19] "L'esclave et mulatre nommée Isabella ou Bell, fille, âgée d'environ quinze ans, avec les hardes et linges à son usage." She is to obey her new master and render him faithful service. The price is expressed as "cinquante livres monnaye du cours actuel de Quebec, égale à deux cents piastres d'Espagne"—Fifty pounds Quebec currency equal to two hundred Spanish dollars. The word "livre" was in English times used for "pound." The pound in Quebec or Halifax currency was in practice about nine-tenths the value of the pound sterling.
The Ordinance of September 14, 1764, made one British shilling equal to 1s. 4d. Quebec currency, i.e., the Quebec shilling was ¾ of an English shilling; the Ordinance of May 15, 1765, confirmed their valuation, making 18 British half-pence and 36 British farthings one Quebec shilling, but the Ordinance of March 29, 1777, made the British shilling only 1/1 and the British crown 5/6.
"The Seville, Mexico and Pillar Dollar" was by the Quebec Ordinance of December 14, 1764, made equal to 6/ of Quebec currency or 4/6 sterling; the Ordinance of March 29, 1777, equates "the Spanish Dollar" to 5/ Quebec currency (which was then substantially nine-tenths the value of sterling), i.e., 4/6 sterling; the Upper Canadian Act of 1796 equated "the Spanish milled dollar" to 5/ Provincial currency or 4/6 sterling.
The notaries in the case were Berthelot Dartigny and A. Panet, Jr.; the act was passed in Cramahé's house, rue St-Louis.
[20] The same notaries appeared and the act was passed in the same place.
[21] The notaries are A. Dumas and Charles Stewart; the act was passed in the latter's office.
[22] See the latest Report of the Archives of Canada.
The Ordinance of General James Murray establishing Military Courts in Quebec and its vicinity will be found printed in Shortt and Doughty's Documents relating to the Constitution of Canada, pp. 42, 44. General Gage's Ordinance established them in the District of Montreal will be found in the publication of the Archives of Canada. Le Règne Militaire.
[23] It is to be observed that it was considered that prima facie the Negro was a slave. The same rule was applied in many states (Cobb, Law of Negro Slavery, pp. 253 sqq.), unless the alleged slave had been in the enjoyment of freedom; but Chief Justice Strange of Nova Scotia and his successor Salter Sampson Blowers by throwing the onus upon the master did much toward the abolition of slavery in that province. See The Slave in Canada, pp. 105-108.
[24] I here copy the letter, verbatim et literatum, a delightful literary effort.
Saratoga 20 Feby 1785.
Dr Sir,
I send by John Brown a Negro woman Named Sarah my Right & Lawful property—which you will Pleas Dispose of with the advis of your friends.—I have Wrote Mr Thomson on the same subjet—she has no fault to my knolage She will not Drink and so fare as I have seen she is honest—many many upertunitys she has had to have shown her Dishonesty had she been so in Clined ... I am sory to give you the troble—She cost me sixty five pounds should not Lick to sell her under.—Should you not be able to get Cash you may sell her for furrs of any Kind you think will sutt our market and send them down by the Return sladges; any trobl you my be at shall Pay for these.
I am Dr. Sir. Your
as hurede frind &c:Hugh McAdam
Mr. Morrison
mercht. Montreal.
As to a subsequent disposition of Sarah, see sale of June 6, 1789.
[25] It is possibly the same mulatto boy, Dick, the subject of the following Bill of Sale:
Thusberry octrs 19. 1785.
Know all men By these presents that I William Gillchres in the County of Rutland and State of Vermount, Yoeman for and in consideration of twenty pound Law Money to you in hand paid by Joseph Barrey of Richmond in the County of Cheshier in State of New Hampshier yeoman whereof I acknoledg the receipt and barggained and sold one molate Boy six years old naimed Dick to him the said Joseph Barney and his heirs for ever, to have and to hold the said molater boy, I said William Gillchres who for myself and my heirs promise for ever to warrant socure and defend said promise against the lawful claims or demand of any person or persons in which I have set my hand, hereunto, and seal this nineteenth day of October one thousand seven hundred and eighty-six, in the eleventh year of endipendency.
(Signed) William Gillchres
Signed, sealed
in the presence of us
(Signed) Elisha Fullan
Lucy Yeomans
On the back of this document were written thus the following words:
Novemer ye 15, 1786
Recevd the contents of
the within bill by me
Joseph Barrey
29 Nover 1786.
Witness) Martin McEvoy
present)
John Carven
Gillchress
Bill of Morlato
Boy nd. Dick Gun
[26] I assume New York Currency, in which case the pound was 20 York shillings or $2.50.
[27] 1787, January 10, George Brown and Sarah a Negress were married by Cave—it was probably the same Sarah.
[28] While this was in fact and in law a sale, the transaction was far more than a mere transfer of property: The Notary John Abraham Gray has the Notarial Act No. 74 which shows that Manuel, the negro man voluntarily engaged as servant, to Thomas Sullivan, under the usual conditions of servitude, for five years, at the end of which term, the said Manuel, if he should faithfully carry out his said engagement was to be emancipated and set at liberty according to due form of law, otherwise he was to remain the property of the said Sullivan.
A Notarial Act now in the possession of the Historical Society, Chicago, dated at Montreal, August 15, 1731, passed before the Notary Charles Benoit et St. Désiez, evidences the sale by Louis Chappeau to Sieur Pierre Guy, merchant, both of Montreal, of an Indian lad of the Patoka nation, aged about 10 or 12 years, for 200 livres paid in beaver and other skins. See Report of Canadian Archives, 1905, vol. 1, lxix.
It may be of interest to note that on pp. 476, 477 of the same report is copied a memorial (October 29, 1768) of the inhabitants and merchants of Louisiana in which they complain, inter alia, of D'Ulloa the Spanish Governor of Louisiana (1766-8) forbidding "the importation of negroes to the colony under the pretext that this competition would hurt an English merchant of Jamaica who had sent a vessel to D'Ulloa to confirm the contract for the importation of slaves. In creating this monopoly, he had robbed his new subjects of the means of procuring slaves cheaply...."