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.