“Especially in This Free Country:” Webs of Empire, Slavery and the Fur Trade
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“especially in this free Country:” Webs of Empire, Slavery and the Fur Trade by [Margaret] Anne Lindsay A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of the University of Manitoba in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of History University of Manitoba Winnipeg, Manitoba Copyright © 2021 [Margaret] Anne Lindsay Table of Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................. iv Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................................ v Abstract .................................................................................................................................................... vi Historical Language Note ....................................................................................................................... vii Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 1 The Historiography of erasure .............................................................................................................. 5 Slavery and the HBC’s Committee to 1799 ........................................................................................ 19 Figure 1: HBC London Committee and Major Early Shareholders Relationship Map. ......................... 28 Overview of Chapters ......................................................................................................................... 29 Chapter One: “In the possession of the French and Canadians to who they belong:” Slavery and the fur trade in the east ....................................................................................................................................... 35 Gaps, lacunae, and language, challenges in documenting slavery in the fur trade in Northern North America ............................................................................................................................................... 35 Fur trade and slavery in New France .................................................................................................. 36 Fur trade and slavery in the east after 1760 ........................................................................................ 50 Figure 2: Original Beaver Club Members’ identified connections with slavery .................................... 62 Conclusions ......................................................................................................................................... 66 Chapter Two: “Which, on my refusal, Poitras purchased:” Slavery, unfreedom, and the fur trade in the pays d’en haut ......................................................................................................................................... 67 Being Black in the pays d’en haut: Challenges in recognition ........................................................... 67 The Bonga Family: Degrees of Freedom ............................................................................................ 70 Fur trade slavery across the Canadian shield, over the prairies, and into the parklands ..................... 84 Conclusions ......................................................................................................................................... 94 Chapter Three: “Ye Compies Slaves:” Slavery in Northern North America under the Hudson’s Bay Company ................................................................................................................................................. 96 The HBC and Imperial Narratives of Benevolence ............................................................................ 96 Power, politics, and slavery along the Bay ....................................................................................... 100 Slave, Slavey, and Slavery: More linguistic challenges ................................................................... 103 “For the use of ye factory:” Accounts of slavery along Hudson Bay ............................................... 105 Moving Inland: “A useful Servant to ye Company,” the life of John Easter .................................... 112 “At least at such a cheap rate:” Freedom, unfreedom, ambiguities and instabilities in women’s lives in the early nineteenth century fur trade ........................................................................................... 120 i The HBC and Slavery in the Pacific Northwest in the nineteenth century ....................................... 129 Opposing positions: Herbert Beaver and William A. Slacum .......................................................... 129 “Enquire about these things and write me what you know:” Slavery in the Pacific Northwest beyond Beaver and Slacum ........................................................................................................................... 138 “Making affection the only bond that supports the immoral system:” The HBC’s ongoing intersections with slavery .................................................................................................................. 147 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................................... 149 Chapter Four: “The grounds and walks are joined to ours by a bridge:” Spiders’ webs of relationship in the triangular trade ................................................................................................................................ 151 From Scotland to Jamaica to Timiskaming: Aeneas Cameron’s networks and connections ............ 151 Slavery, relationship, and the Phyn, Ellice, Inglis, Richardson and Forsyth families ...................... 152 Figure 3: A survey of Phyn and Ellice and some of their family/business relationships ...................... 157 George Sutherland, Richard Neaves, and Matthew Raikes: HBC employees and investors with Jamaican connections ........................................................................................................................ 158 The Wedderburn Family ................................................................................................................... 161 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................................... 178 Chapter Five: “The plan I have laid for you:” Women, Webs of Relationship and Jean Wedderburn Douglas ................................................................................................................................................. 179 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 179 Family, Connection, and the Fur Trade ............................................................................................ 186 North America, New Challenges, New Relationships ...................................................................... 193 Direct Interventions .......................................................................................................................... 196 New Relationships ............................................................................................................................ 202 Figure 4: Jean Wedderburn Douglas Relationship Map ...................................................................... 217 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................................... 218 Chapter Six: “An appearance of regularity and civilization” :The Red River Settlement .................... 224 Early attempts at Civilization and Regularization in the Red River Settlement: The Buffalo Wool Company, Race, Class and Gender ................................................................................................... 224 Family, business, sugar and fur: George Simpson ............................................................................ 245 Figure 5: Relationship map of some of George Simpson’s key relationships. ..................................... 252 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................................... 262 Conclusions: “Fortune, cunning, and Prudence” .................................................................................. 264 From Culloden to the West Indies: The Wedderburn Family’s Paths of Violence through the British Empire ............................................................................................................................................... 264 From Culloden to the Fur Trade ....................................................................................................... 273 ii Conclusions ....................................................................................................................................... 276 Appendix A: Descriptions of Joseph Lewis in Fur Trade Records ....................................................... 285 Appendix B: John [Jack] Easter Chronology ........................................................................................ 297 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................