Breaking the Bonds of Ignorance and Denial: Slavery, Genocide, Historical Fiction & other Canadian Values By Richard Sanders

or hundreds of years, most Cana- dians and their leaders — legal, re- Fligious and political — valued the institution of slavery as a norm of society. This ugly blot on ’s heritage con- tradicts the grand, self-congratulatory myth that this country is a Peaceable King- dom, infused to its core with such blessed traits as multiculturalism, human rights and social justice. To this day, although sup- posedly enlightened by these much-herald-

ed “Canadian values,” this country remains , May 2014 haunted by the spectre of its little-known history of slavery. Slavery is one of the abhorrent re- alities of Canadian heritage that is hidden behind grand national myths. Although for generations, Canadian laws and religious mores enshrined and sanctified the busi- “Slavery is Canada’s best-kept secret” ness of human bondage, this reality is now Afua Cooper Lindsay Campbell, Literary Review of Canada all but forgotten. When it comes to recog- captivating veils of deception that still col- Scholars have painted a pristine picture nising this history, Canada is still enslaved our the blissfully rosy image of our coun- of Canada’s past. It is difficult to find a by ignorance, amnesia and denial. try as a Peaceable Kingdom. scholarly or popular publication on the country’s past in which images, stories, How was Canadian slavery justi- Uncovering our little-known histo- and analyses of slave life are depicted fied and legitimized for so long before be- ry of slavery are academics such as Afua ing buried and forgotten? Learning this his- .... It is possible to complete a graduate Cooper, the chair of Black Canadian Stud- degree in Canadian studies and not tory may help emancipate us from the hy- ies at Dalhousie University in Halifax. know that slavery existed in Canada.2 pocrisies that continue to hold so many Ca- “Slavery,” she says, “is Canada’s best-kept To explain why this history has been “sup- nadians hostage. By freeing ourselves from secret, locked within the national closet. pressed or buried,” Cooper says “slavery the blinding myth that Canada is built on And because it is a secret it is written out has been erased from the collective uncon- such noble values as human rights and of official history.”1 Cooper, a Jamaican- sciousness” because this “ignoble and un- multiculturalism, we may see through the born Canadian, goes on to lament that savoury past” serves to “cast Whites in a Oh say can you see? cultured” country that can act as “a guide to other peoples who seek a path to the Canada’s Blindspot for Peaceable Racism peaceable kingdom.” By Richard Sanders between themselves and their behemoth Being a professor of Canadian his- neighbour. The idea flourishes and in- hose enamoured and entrapped by tory at Toronto’s York University, Kil- fuses the interpretations of Canada’s bourn should have known better. Instead, this country’s pervasive self-delu- most esteemed scholars. In its extreme Tsions of peaceableness need to un- form, the ‘peaceable kingdom’ ideal rel- he built grand fantasy-world castles in the learn what they think they “know” about egates the malignancies of ethnic, cul- clouds by suggesting that Canada was Canada. Only then might such citizens be tural, or racial discrimination to the sta- ready “to be a father to a few of the world’s able to see, let alone criticise, Canada’s tus of mere aberrations in Canadian his- lost and abandoned children and a brother tory.1 (Emphasis added.) 2 role in supporting policies that promote to all mankind.” The “extreme form” of the “peace- the whole gamut of depredations that we Like so many other scribbling Ca- able kingdom” myth is far worse than just so gloatingly love to despise in our Ameri- nadian literati, beguiled by the illusion of seeing Canada’s “malignancies” as “aber- can neighbours. a “two-cultured” kingdom leading a trou- rations,” it’s not seeing them at all. A text- With an outsider’s eyes, Scott See, bled world toward sanity, Kilbourn also book example of this humble hubris is a a history professor at the University of waxed on at length about the great impor- classic anthology, Canada: A Guide to the Maine, has put Canada’s peaceability un- tance of nature and geography to Canadi- Peaceable Kingdom (1970), edited by der the academic microscope: ans’ sense of national identity. Remarkably, Deserving of a rigorous inspection is William Kilbourn. “I cannot help feeling,” Kilbourn did this without making even a the ‘peaceable kingdom’ myth, a na- he wrote in his intro, “that Canada, merely passing reference to how the vast territory tionalistic legacy growing out of 19th- by existing, does offer a way and a hope, of Canada was stolen, or from whom. century convictions as Canadians an alternative to insanity … in an insane Realising that wholesale theft is the sought to draw important distinctions world.” Canada, Kilbourn said, is a “two- ground upon which this country is built, 30 Press for Conversion! (Issue # 69) Fall 2017 ‘bad’ light.” As a result, she says, the Enslaved by Canada’s of Canada’s self-image as a white set- “chroniclers of the country’s past, creators Underground-Railroad Myth tler nation that welcomes and accepts non-white subjects. It has been one of and keepers of its traditions and myths, A popular self-image held dear by many the more important narratives bolster- banished this past into the dustbins of his- Canadians is that this country was a safe 3 ing perceptions of Canadian generos- tory.” haven for American slaves. “The Under- ity and goodwill…. This history of be- In whiting out this shameful histo- ground Railroad,” says Abigail Bakan, “is nevolence, conceals and/or skews co- ry, Canadians like to contrast themselves commonly understood as a defining mo- lonial practices, Aboriginal genocides with Americans. “[W]e associate the word ment in the ideology of the Canadian state and struggles, and Canada’s implication ‘slavery’ with the United States,” says regarding the legacy of racism and anti- in transatlantic slavery, racism, and ra- 4 cial intolerance. That is, the Under- Cooper, “not Canada.” racism.” But as Bakan, the chair of Gen- George Clarke, a Nova Scotian ground Railroad continually der Studies at Queen’s University, has historicizes a national self-image that poet and playwright, has also decried Can- pointed out, Canada was “far from a Prom- obscures racism and colonialism ada’s naive, self-glorifying image: ised Land.”7 through its ceaseless promotion of Ca- The avoidance of Canada’s sorry his- Refrains from the sacred Canadi- nadian helpfulness, generosity, and tory of slavery and racism is natural. It an hymnal about the Underground Rail- adorable impartiality.9 is how Canadians prefer to understand road, repeat the cherished chord that fugi- Afua Cooper has also tried to cor- themselves: we are a nation of good, rect Canada’s self-righteous anti-slavery Nordic, ‘pure,‘ mainly White folks, as tive slaves were warmly welcomed citizens opposed to the lawless, hot-tempered, of the “True North Strong and Free.” Un- myths by saying impure mongrel Americans, with their fortunately, the Great White North’s his- we associate Canada with ‘freedom’ or ‘refuge,’ because … between 1830 and messy history of slavery, civil war, seg- tory has been coloured to match what regation, assassinations, lynching, riots, 1860 … thousands of American runa- Clarke has called Canada’s “flattering self- way slaves escaped to and found ref- and constant social turmoil. Key to this portrait.” As Bakan has noted: propaganda — and that is what it is — uge in the British territories to the north. popular understanding and retelling of is the Manichean portrayal of two na- [T]he image of Canada as ‘freedom’s the Underground Railroad story, tions: Canada, the land of ‘Peace, Or- land’ has lodged itself in the national Canada is presumed in its origins and der and Good Government’ … where psyche and become part of our national early history as a nation consistent with racism was not and is not tolerated, identity. One result is the assumption modern notions of inclusiveness and versus the United States of America, the that Canada is different from and mor- multiculturalism.8 ally superior to that ‘slave-holding re- land of guns, cockroaches, and garbage, 10 of criminal sedition confronted by ag- However, this self image does not public,’ the U.S. gressive policing (and jailing), where match historical reality. As Queen’s Uni- The idea that Canada was “a prej- racism was and is the arbiter of class versity gender studies professor Kather- udice-free haven at the end of the Under- (im)mobility.5 ine McKittrick has noted, Canada’s Un- ground Railroad, ... waiting to receive slav- But there is a “price” to be paid, derground Railroad history ery’s oppressed victims,” is a “popular Clarke says, for Canada’s “flattering self- is central to the nation’s legacy of ra- myth”11 said historian Allen Stouffer of St. portrait” and that “price … is public ly- cial tolerance and benevolence .… In a Francis Xavier University. In truth, for ing, falsified history, and self-destructive post-slave context, this history has been more than a century after Britain outlawed extremely significant in the production blindness.”6 slavery, racism was the law in Canada. should pull the rug out from under the cher- tinctions, assumptions, laws, and activi- lars of the Canadian history of race.”5 ished notion that Canada is a “Just Soci- ties…. To fail to scrutinize the records Canada’s government, many cor- ety.” Without its long history of land plun- of our past to identify deeply implanted porations, mainstream media outlets and tenets of racist ideology and practice der, Canada simply could not exist. But is to acquiesce in the popular miscon- civil society NGOs regularly reinforce our while our stolen landscape forms the ception that depicts our country as naively self-satisfied mythology by pre- physical basis of Canada’s political geog- largely innocent of systemic racial ex- senting us with smiling images of a fictive raphy, the widespread systemic racism ploitation. Nothing could be more pat- country whose citizens are magically in- against Indigenous peoples — which per- ently erroneous.3 fused with such “Canadian values” as mul- meates French and English heritage — is The ongoing reality of our coun- ticulturalism, human rights and world part of the colonial mortar that unifies our try’s blindspot for its own racism is clearly peace. mythic Peaceable Kingdom. visible to some Canadians. For example, Despite this reality, many persist in when Trinidad-born Canadian poet and References seeing Canadian history through rose-col- historian, Dionne Brand, gets asked in in- 1. Scott See, “Nineteenth-Century Collective oured glasses that blind them to systemic terviews: ‘Is there racism in this country?’” Violence: Toward a North Ameri- her reply is that can Context,” Labour, Spring 1997, p.35. racism. Constance Backhouse, a legal tinyurl.com/yd7nzxdl scholar and historian at the University of Unlike the United States, where there 2. William Kilbourn (ed.), Canada: A Guide is at least an admission of the fact that Ottawa, writes of “our national mythology to the Peaceable Kingdom, 1970. p.xi. racism exists and has a history, in this 3. Constance Backhouse, Colour-coded: A that Canada is not a racist country,” and country [Canada] one is faced with a says our “ideology of racelessness” is “a stupefying innocence. We have a Legal History of Racism in Canada, 1900- hallmark of the Canadian historical tradi- 4 1950, 1999, pp.14, 7. deeper problem. tinyurl.com/y86drmh2 tion.” She explains that, “however fictional Backhouse also says that our national 4. Dionne Brand, Bread Out of Stone, 1974, the concept of ‘race’ may be”: “‘mythology of racelessness’ and ‘stupe- p.178. Cited by Backhouse, p.14. Canadian history is rooted in racial dis- fying innocence’… appear to be twin pil- 5. Ibid. Fall 2017 (Issue # 69) Press for Conversion! 31 Erasing Slavery from Public Memory Although slavery in , said his- torian Marcel Trudel, “had an official, le- gal existence over two centuries ... between 1632 and 1834,”16 it is still practically unknown to Canadians. Throughout his ca- reer, Trudel tried to expose this lost histo- ry. “How can slavery in Canada have been virtually forgotten?” he asked in 2013. “Historians are surely to blame, whether because they did not examine slavery or because they failed even to notice it.”17 Trudel pointed to an “ influential nineteenth-century nationalist historian,” Francois-Xavier Garneau,18 who “com- pletely misinformed” readers” with an “ex-

, February 24, 2015. traordinary distortion of historical truth!” Trudel reveals that Garneau not only “claimed that slavery in Québec was large- ly a British institution,” he also “claimed L’Encre Noir L’Encre the clergy had consistently opposed slav- Blacks and Asians were all but banned parts of the American northeast for almost ery.” Finally, Trudel lambasts Garneau for from entering Canada until 1967 when the 60 years. Vermont began to ban slavery in having “left out all mention of ‘savage’ “race” barrier was finally removed from 1777, followed by Pennsylvania in 1780 slaves.” The result, said Trudel, was that our immigration laws. Racial segregation and New Hampshire in 1783. Massachu- Garneau’s “erroneous description of slav- in schools was legal in Ontario and Nova setts then completely outlawed slavery, ery” helped “society forget the institution Scotia until the 1960s. Segregation was while Connecticut and Rhode Island be- had ever existed here.”19 also imposed in the military, and by vari- gan to follow suit in 1784. Within three Trudel exposed three main fictions ous churches, orphanages, poor-houses, years, slavery was abolished in , In- about Canadian slavery perpetuated by hospitals, hotels, restaurants, theatres, diana, , , and part Garneau and others since. Firstly, among parks, pools, beaches, dance halls, rinks of . Lagging far behind was the documented slave owners, 85.5% were and bars.12 New York, which stalled until 1799 when Francophone and 14.5% were Anglo- Despite this, “most Canadians it began the process of abolition. But Ca- phone.20 Secondly, regarding alleged could deny to themselves that Canada had nada was much farther behind. Our gov- church opposition to slavery, Trudel a ‘race’ problem,” said political scientist ernment lagged another 35 years until the “could not find any single instance where Jill Vickers. In Canada, she noted, “the ma- order to ban slavery finally came from the clergy opposed introducing blacks into jority of Whites supported segregation” Britain in 1834.14 Canada.” In fact, he noted that “in 1720, and “Canada’s ‘dirty little secret’ enjoyed For years then, while Canada held religious communities joined the rest of widespread, if covert, support.”13 on to slavery, New England was a land of the population in petitioning Intendant To derail the prevailing train of relative freedom. Begon to allow them to import hundreds thought about Canada’s underground-rail- Those enslaved by Canada’s ro- of blacks.”21 Finally, Trudel’s research way, we must put this popular myth into manticised legends of the Underground showed that Indigenous slaves “far out- reverse. Climb aboard as we look at slaves Railroad would be surprised to learn that numbered black slaves.”22 who escaped bondage in Canada to gain some Canadian slaves escaped their bond- But Canada’s ignorance of slavery freedom in the US. age here to find freedom in the US. Coop- is not the fault of historians alone. As Tru- er notes that “in Detroit, for example, a del’s publisher noted, his Canada’s Reverse group of former Upper Canadian slaves research documents Canadian politi- Underground Railroad? formed a militia in 1806 for the defence cians, historians and ecclesiastics who During the final decades of the 1700s and of the city against the Canadians.” Some deliberately falsified the record, glori- fying their own colonial-era heroes, in the first decades of the 1800s, some slaves former Canadian slaves soon took up arms in Canada dreamed of fleeing captivity by order to remove any trace of the thou- to protect Detroit from attacks by Canadi- sands of Aboriginal and Black slaves escaping to the US! The existence of this an forces during the War of 1812.15 held in bondage for two centuries in “reverse Underground Railroad” would Detroit, named after the French Canada.23 surprise those who cherish the notion that word for strait (d’étroit), had previously In his book Canada’s Forgotten Canada was always a sanctuary for runa- been within the bounds of New France. Slaves (2013), first published in 1960, way slaves. As part of the French Empire in North Am- Trudel observed that the history of slav- Although Britain, and hence Cana- erica, it too was deeply ensconced in the ery in Canada is “still relatively unknown” da, did finally abolish slavery in 1834, it system of slavery that pervaded western and that “we are still met with surprise” had by then already been in remission in European society. and “disbelief” that slavery ever existed 32 Press for Conversion! (Issue # 69) Fall 2017 here. Although the “version of Québec his- the civil administration of New France, Documented slaves reached a peak tory we have long been told was all about wrote in 1709: of about 500 between 1740 and 1760. Tru- missionaries and spiritualists,” he re- It is well known the advantage this del attributed this marked, “our colonial past can be likened colony would gain if its inhabitants to the importance of the fur trade, which to the Thirteen Colonies of America.”24 could securely purchase and import the made it easier to acquire Amerindian This blissful ignorance is not new. Indians called Panis, whose country is slaves. With the decline of the fur trade, far distant from this one .... [T]he peo- the number of Amerindian slaves then Trudel noted that slavery left “few traces ple of the Panis nation are needed by quickly fell off.40 in the collective memory and literature of the inhabitants of this country for agri- While Trudel did not delve into the ,” and only “scattered references” culture and other enterprises that might links between fur trading and slavery, are found in 19th century Québec litera- be undertaken, like Negroes in the [Car- Rushforth gives many details. Before Eu- ibbean] Islands.32 ture. “Our novelists,” he lamented, “nev- ropean contact, some First Nations had a Over 85% of New France’s Indigenous er noticed the presence of slaves” and only tradition of exchanging gifts — including 25 slaves, whose origins are now known, were one “ever bothered to mention slaves.” captured enemies — as a form of ritual- taken captive in the River ba- Trudel delved into historical doc- ised diplomacy to cement alliances. Rush- sin.33 Although not all these slaves were uments to expose lost details of Canadian forth notes that Indian allies of New France Pawnee, the term panis was a generic term slavery. He found data on 4,185 slaves, initially offered a few captives “from their for all Indigenous slaves. largely in the civil registries of Catholic western enemies ... as symbolic gifts to The slaves of New France were and Protestant churches which noted French merchants associated with the fur most visible in its large urban centres, slaves if they were baptized. These records trade.”41 While First Nations saw this as a where 61 percent of all known slaves were however are incomplete because “no law way to “negotiate peace” and “strengthen held.34 Research by Brett Rushforth, a his- compelled owners to baptize their slaves friendships,” French traders were motivat- 26 torian at the University of Oregon, has re- and they were in no hurry to do so.” ed by strictly commercial goals. Seeking vealed that by 1709 about 14 percent of One of the significant but little profits, they encouraged their Indian al- all Montreal households owned an Indian known facts about slaves in New France lies to capture more and more slaves.42 slave. Rushforth also found that panis were is that most were Indigenous. Of the 4,124 Andre Penicaut, who lived in most common in Montreal’s commercial documented slaves whose race was record- France’s American colonies from 1699 to zone. In this area of the city “half of all ed, 35 percent were Black, while 64 per- 1721, reported in his account of the year colonists who owned a home in 1725 also cent, including 339 children, were Indi- 1710 that French-Canadians 27 owned an Indian slave.”35 genous. Most slaves died young. On av- living among the Kaskaskia Illinois erage, Indigenous slaves did not even sur- While Québec City had 38 percent were inciting the savage nations ... to vive to age 18, while Black slaves usually of known urban slaves, “Montreal led the make war upon one another ... in order died by the time they were 25 years old.28 way,” says Trudel, with 60 percent. Many to get slaves that they [the French] ... Although “the institution of slav- were “acquired from Amerindian nations sold to the English. ery in Canada was first recognized and through the fur trade, Montreal’s economic Rushforth notes that French coureurs de amply protected by French law,” Trudel lifeblood.”36 bois and their First Nations’ partners, spent points out that slavery was “extended un- much of the 1710s “working with Caroli- der the British regime” after the 1760 Con- The Slave / Fur Trade na traders to bring slaves and furs from quest of New France.29 The 47th Article A little-known reality of Canada’s Indige- the western Ohio Valley to southeastern 43 of Capitulation stated nous slave trade is its close connection to English ports.” Negroes and Panis of both Sexes shall the fur trade. In fact, the trade in furs and The colonial administrators of New remain in possession of the French and the trade in Indigenous slaves were not France saw this movement of pelts and Canadians to whom they belong; they really two separate businesses. They were slaves to British markets on the Atlantic shall be at liberty to keep them in their actually just two sides of the same very coast as a threat not only to French busi- service in the Colony or sell them; and lucrative coin. ness interests but to their strategic allianc- they may also continue to bring them Trudel hinted at the link between es with First Nations. These military ties up in the Roman religion.30 the trade in furs and slaves when remark- While Francophones were more were vital to France’s ongoing war with ing that slave owners were largely found likely to own Indigenous slaves, Anglo- the Britain to control North America. in four professions: “colonial officials, mil- phones favoured Black ones. During the Rushforth cites an English map- itary officers, explorers and fur traders.” American Revolution (1765-1783), the maker and author, Jonathon Carver, who These “key groups,” he said, “defined the number of Black slaves in Canada “rose recorded in his 1789 journal that the heyday of slave-owning” in Canada be- suddenly to well over 600.” This is because French colony’s increasing demand for cause they were the “most intimately in- when British Empire Loyalists fled north Indigenous slaves “caused the dissensions volved with native Amerindian nations.”37 to be warmly welcomed into Canada, the between the Indian nations to be carried Trudel found records showing that government was happy to let them bring on with a greater degree of violence, and at least 38 had 73 slaves, while 44 all their property, including their slaves.31 with unremitted ardor.” 35 fur traders owned 112.38 Two of the lat- Indigenous slaves were known as “As French colonists demanded a ter made it onto Trudel’s list of Canada’s panis because so many of them had been growing number of Indian slaves from thirty “leading slave owners”: Jacques- kidnapped from the Pawnee nation in what their allies,” said Rushforth, “Native François Lacelle with 16 slaves, and Lou- is now , and . American captive customs also evolved to is Campeau with 11.39 As Jacques Raudot, the intendant who ran meet the new realities of New France’s Fall 2017 (Issue # 69) Press for Conversion! 33 Jobs, Slaves and Pelts In 1744, La Vérendrye boasted in a events and the arts.” This online source not only heralds La Véren- letter to King Louis XVI’s minister drye as “a symbol of courage and of state, that his activities in the spirit of adventure,” but also New France provided as “the archetypal ideal of the three main benefits: voyageur who ... discovered new waterways and deftly ran a fur “the great number of people my trade operation ....” It also false- enterprise provides with a living, ly conflates his brand with Cana- the slaves it procures to the colony da’s mythology of multicultural and the pelts which had unity by saying that “La Véren- drye is alive and well in the shar- previously gone to the English.” ed memories of a variety of cul- tures and communities — French, English, Métis and Native alike.”50 slave market.” With the increasing demand La Vérendrye’s no- for slaves, “Indian nations increasingly ble visage is also commemorated viewed captives as commodities of trade,” in countless paintings, statues and explained Rushforth, “rather than as sym- civic monuments, as well as on a bols of alliance, power, or spiritual renew- Canadian postage stamp, and on al,” or as a means to “build union and fos- 1,000 solid gold coins produced ter peace.” The slave trade was certainly a by the Royal Canadian Mint in depraved and corrupting force. Because catalogue illustrator theatre director and Eaton’s set designer, Pauline Boutal, painter, 2016. Although marketing for it “rewarded brutality with valuable his sons owned at least six.47 This howev- these $2,000 coins, in the “Great Cana- goods,” said Rushforth, the French appe- er is trivial compared to his overall role in dian Explorers Series,” says that it tite for more and more slaves “encouraged the acquisition and sale of Indigenous “[h]ighlights the fundamental role of Ab- the colony’s [Indigenous] allies to choose slaves through the fur trade. For example, original people in Canada,”51 there is no warfare over peace.”45 in 1742, La Vérendrye acquired a particu- hint that La Vérendrye’s line of work used larly large number of slaves. Claude-Gode- warfare to capture Indigenous slaves. La Vérendrye: froy Coquart, a Jesuit missionary who was La Vérendrye did not hide his in- Slave Trader Extraordinaire accompanying La Vérendrye’s western volvement in the despicable business of A key to the hidden history of the slave/ business trip, wrote that their Cree and slavery. He was in fact proud of his work fur trade is a name that inspires romantic Assiniboine allies had killed 70 Sioux men supplying Indigenous slaves to the urban myths of discovery and adventure. Across plus an undisclosed number of women and markets of Montreal and Québec. La the continent, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes children. During their four-day battle, they Vérendrye’s boastfulness about building La Vérendrye is remembered as a soldier, also captured so many slaves that Coquart the empire for his French colonial mas- fur trader and explorer. To finance the ex- said it formed a line four arpents long.48 ters was expressed in his 1744 letter to pansion of New France, he received the (Since an arpent was 192 feet, the line of Louis XVI’s minister of state, Maurepas. French king’s blessings in the form of a captives from this battle measured 768 In describing his valuable contribution to lucrative monopoly on the fur trade west feet!) When , king and colony, La Vérendrye bragged of the Great Lakes. Marquis de Beauharnois, reported this to that there were three main benefits to the While La Vérendrye is portrayed Louis XVI’s chief minister, the Comte vast commercial venture that he founded in countless sources as a heroic figure who Maurepas, he said “this will not be good and commanded. He listed these as: “opened up” western Canada, little is ever for La Vérendrye’s affairs for he will have the great number of people my enter- said — outside a few scholarly articles — more slaves than bundles of fur.”49 prise provides with a living, the slaves about his pivotal role in “opening up” But despite close ties to the hor- it procures to the colony and the pelts Canada’s slave trade. rors of the slave trade, La Vérendrye’s which had previously gone to the Eng- lish ....52 Legends about La Vérendrye have name can be found across the cultural land- To this, Trudel remarked that by listing been perpetuated in many popular fictions, scape on street signs, schools, a hospital, jobs, slaves and furs, in that order, La including Canadian history textbooks. As a river and provincial park in Ontario, an Vérendrye was declaring that he “consid- Karlee Sapoznik, a York University histo- electoral district in Manitoba, a mountain ered slavery to be the second advantage rian, has said: in B.C., and a 12,600 sq.km. wildlife pre- in importance, ahead of furs.”53 the historiographical literature which serve in Québec that contains two First focuses on his travels and turbulent in- Despite decades of research by a Nation communities. teractions with Aboriginal peoples is in- few leading scholars, the closely inter- La Vérendrye’s “memory is espe- complete, for it is marked ... by a tradi- twined history of fur trade with the trade cially honoured and celebrated” in Mani- tion of denial and mythology surround- in Indigenous slaves is still unknown to 46 toba, says the Encyclopedia of French Cul- ing the French-Canadian slave trade. most Canadians. Mainstream history Trudel showed that La Vérendrye tural Heritage in North America, during sources must share the blame for this col- had three or more personal slaves, and that “commemorative festivities, cultural 34 Press for Conversion! (Issue # 69) Fall 2017 lective amnesia. Let’s look at three key ex- nadian Biography. It notes that “Most his- Exporting Slaves to amples that completely whitewash this fac- torians ... for reasons which are not too the War Galleys of France et of history: The Canadian Encyclope- difficult to understand, have preferred to The French regime in Canada not only al- dia, the Canadian Museum of History, and ignore this aspect of his career.”59 lowed its subjects to capture Indigenous the Encyclopedia of French Cultural Her- It is however “difficult to under- people for use as slaves, it commanded the itage in North America. None of these stand” why Indigenous slavery and its links military to seize Indigenous leaders and sources even mention slavery in their ma- to the fur trade, goes unmentioned on the export them as slaves to France. This even terial on the fur trade.54 web sites of the Assembly of First Nations passed as a form of Canadian diplomacy! The Canadian Encyclopedia (AFN) and the Truth and Reconciliation A good example of this, which took place downplays Indigenous slavery in Canada. Commission (TRC). The AFN website in 1687, illustrates the double-dealing of While its main article on slavery, called does not reference Canada’s two-centuries Canadian political authorities in their “Black Enslavement in Canada,” does in- of trade in Indian slaves, or its ties to the peace negotiations with First Nations. It clude limited information on Indigenous fur trade.60 also demonstrates the key role played by slaves, it makes no mention of the fur While the TRC website repeats two religion in the government’s deceitful re- trade.55 Likewise, the Muse- lations with Indigenous peoples. um of History’s webpage on Despite decades of research by a This story of treachery and intrigue slavery also neglects any ref- few leading scholars, the closely opens with a letter written in 1684 by King erence to the fur trade.56 intertwined history of the fur trade Louis XIV to Joseph-Antoine de La Barre, While the Encyclopedia of with the trade in Indigenous slaves then Governor General of New France. In French Cultural Heritage in his letter, the king approved La Barre’s North America does not have is still unknown to most Canadians. plan to attack the so-called “Iroquois Sav- any articles on slavery, a few Mainstream history sources must share ages,” and agreed to send another ship with of its entries do mention, in the blame for this collective amnesia. 300 more soldiers. The king told La Barre passing, that slaves existed in that he wanted to New France particularly those of African general references to the African slave furnish you means to fight advanta- origin held captive in .57 trade,61 and an honorary witness mentioned geously, and to destroy utterly those Although these sources boost the slavery in Nazi arms factories,62 it gives people, or at least to place them in a La Vérendrye’s image as a great “explor- no information about the slave trade in Ca- state after having punished them for their insolence, to receive peace on the er,” they say nothing of his complicity in nada. Although the TRC’s final report does conditions which you will impose on the business of seizing and selling Indige- cite statements by the UN and the United them.64 nous people as slaves.58 The fact that Ca- Church of Canada which mention that Eu- His goal, the king said, was “to di- nadian history generally overlooks La ropeans enslaved Indigenous people, the minish as much as possible the number of Vérendrye’s role in ‘opening up’ the slave TRC does not say that this happened in the Iroquois” in New France. “[T]hese trade is mentioned in the Dictionary of Ca- Canada, let alone provide any details.63 savages, who are stout and robust, will,” Who were the Slave Owners of New France? Marcel Trudel’s groundbreaking re- the senior officials of the new regime also Professionals: Slaves were held by doc- search showed that slavery permeated owned slaves. They included 23 members tors, surgeons, notaries, surveyors, print- most ranks of society in New France. of the Executive and Legislative Councils ers, interpreters, navigators, ship captains (including Francophone and Anglophone and even a master sculptor. Government Officials: Some of the members), eight judges, and a solicitor Tradespeople: Carpenters, blacksmiths, highest ranking officials of New France general. The colony’s House of Assembly were slave owners. They included at least woodworkers, tanners, tailors, a saddler had 17 members (including 10 Francoph- and toolmaker were also among the colo- four of the French Regime’s governors ones) who all owned slaves. general. Two Intendants also owned ny’s slave-owning class. slaves. Intendants ruled the colony’s civil Merchants: Under both French and Brit- ish rule, it was merchants who owned the Seigneurs: The feudal lords of New administration, managing finances, settle- France also owned many slaves. In fact, ment, infrastructure, justice and policing. most slaves. About 315 merchants, trad- ers, entrepreneurs or bourgeois were found half of the colony’s 300 seigneurs owned They were also responsible for establish- a total of 442 slaves. This made slavery “a ing the regulations which governed police, to have owned over 830 slaves. Even af- ter the British conquest of 1760, 54 per- regular feature of life in seigneurial man- commerce, militia and seigneurial rights ors.” The governors of Trois-Rivières cent of this group were Francophone, and and Montreal were slave owners. So too they owned 58 percent of the slaves. Church leaders and communities: were many members of the Conseil Military: Besides governors, king’s lieu- Bishops, priests, nuns and numerous reli- Supérieur, or Supreme Court of Justice. tenants, General de Levis, and many other gious communities all owned slaves. Sixteen of its members — including six top ranking military men owned slaves. judges and four crown attorneys — owned Documents reveal that at least 164 mili- Source: This is a summary of data from 43 slaves. Forty seven of the colony’s sen- tary officers owned 431 slaves. This means Marcel Trudel’s book Canada’s Forgot- ior administrators owned 260 slaves. that 20 percent of all known slave-owners ten Slaves, 2013, “Owners at All Levels After the British Conquest in 1760, were officers in the military. of Society,” pp.105-118. Fall 2017 (Issue # 69) Press for Conversion! 35 said the king, “serve with advantage in my to “the entire destruction of the greater part towns near Montreal.” Along the way, galleys.” He then urged La Barre “to do of those savages” before year’s end. To when joined by 160 coureur de bois and everything in your power to make a great this he added that “as a number of prison- nearly 400 from the Ottawa nation, their number of them prisoners of war, and ... ers may be made .... His Majesty thinks he total reached about 2700.72 In describing have them shipped by every opportunity can make use of them in his Galleys.” the unleashing of this force, U.S. histori- ... to France.”65 Being a galley slave aboard Then, he asked Denonville to “send those an Francis Parkman wrote in 1877 that the: one of France’s ships of war was a fate which have been captured,” noting that governor issued a proclamation, and the worse than death. Galleys were then rowed they would “be of great utility.”69 bishop a pastoral mandate. There were by prisoners from French jails and from The governor launched his plan sermons, prayers, and exhortations in the religious war being fought against prot- with a grand deception, not only of the all the churches. ... estant Huguenots. Describing the 17th cen- Haudenosaunee but of Jesuits who had The church showered blessings on them as they went, and daily masses tury as “the great age of the galleys,” and been trying to convert them to Catholicism. were ordained for the downfall of the noting that Louis XIV’s galleys had a “par- The insidious scheme used the pretense of foes of Heaven and of France.73 ticularly bad reputation,” historian peace to entrap Haudenosaunee leaders Meanwhile, Lamberville had con- W.H.Lewis (brother of novelist C.S. and throw them into the hellish slavery of vinced “forty-nine chiefs, numerous pine Lewis) said: France’s war galleys. Denonville used a tree chiefs, and two hundred women in- Until the coming of the concentration missionary named Jean de Lamberville to cluding clan mothers” to attend the sup- camp, the galley held an undisputed lure Haudenosaunee chiefs into a trap at posed peace conference in early July. Ex- pre-eminence as the darkest blot on in Cataracouy, now King- Western civilization; a galley, said a pecting a festive negotiation with the gov- poetic observer shudderingly, would ston, Ontario. Lamberville, who had been ernor and lavish gift exchanges to finalise cast a shadow in the blackest mid- working among the Haudenosaunee for 18 their much-desired peace treaty, the Hau- night.66 years, had managed to win some confi- denosaunee envoys were seized by troops. Governor La Barre suffered defeat dence among them. Using the naive Jesu- Denonville also “allowed his soldiers to by the British-allied Iroquois, who call it’s confidence, the governor’s devious loot the many gifts of furs and food that themselves the Haudenosaunee. As a re- scam worked. Father Lamberville was the Haudenosaunee were bringing to the sult, he was promptly replaced by Jacques- called to Montreal from his mission among conference to seal their goodwill.”74 René de Brisay de Denonville, a noble the Onondaga, a member nation of the Denonville’s violent breach of trust marquis who had served France’s military Haudenosaunee Confederacy in present- did not end there. Some Haudenosaunee for 30 years. In January 1687, Denonville day New York. He was then conned by villagers living close to Fort Frontenac, submitted his plan for a war of terror Governor Denonville into believing that who had long been friendly the French, against the Haudenosaunee. He said that the colonial authorities wanted peace and were also invited to a “feast.” When “thir- this war was “absolutely necessary to avert reconciliation. ty men and ninety women and children” ... a General Rebellion of the Savages Denonville provided him with numer- arrived to celebrate, Parkman says “they which would bring ruin on our trade and ous presents for the tribesmen, commis- were surrounded and captured by the in- sioned him to invite representatives finally the extirpation of our Colony.” This from the Confederacy to a parley at Fort tendant’s escort and the two hundred men war was also “necessary for the establish- Frontenac and seemed to accept Lam- of the garrison.” Then, “a strong party of ment of Religion which will never spread berville’s conciliatory views. Denon- Canadians and Christian Indians,” were itself there, except by the destruction of ville wrote, ‘This poor father does not sent out to “secure” the villagers of near- the Iroquois.” History, according to his suspect our design. He is a clever man; by Ganneious [now Napanee, Ontario]. narrative, hung in the balance. To avoid but if I recalled him from his mission They soon returned with 18 men and 60 “the Ruin of the Country and of Religion,” our purpose would be suspected and the women and children captives. Other Hau- storm would burst on us.’70 the king was asked to supply 1,500 troops. denosaunee were also “offered the hospi- Although his letter from Versailles This, said Denonville, would ensure “the talities” of the fort and some were “caught said “His Majesty has approved ... calling Establishment of Religion, Commerce and by the troops.” These hostages included the Iroquois nations together at Catara- the Kings’ Power over all North Ameri- “Indian families” of men, women and chil- couy,” the king wanted to protect Lamber- ca.” So, “in the eyes of God, the Glory dren who Parkman surmised had also been ville from being “exposed to the fury of and utility,” besides “the Salvation of the “urged ... by the lips of Lamberville, to those Savages.”71 Denonville risked the quantity of Souls in that vast Country ..., visit ... and smoke the pipe of peace.”75 Jesuit’s life by keeping him in the dark. he will secure to himself an Empire of The treatment of these kidnap vic- Lamberville survived thanks to his captor’s more than a thousand leagues.”67 tims was grisly. Using the first hand ac- faith that he had been duped into being an France’s war against the Haudeno- count of Louis Lahontan, Parkman de- unwitting shill in this imperial con game. saunee envisioned the destruction of “all scribed the scene in Fort Frontenac: While initiating this plan to enslave their plantations of Indian corn.” He also A row of posts was planted across the unsuspecting Haudenosaunee chiefs, De- said their villages would be “burnt, their area ... and to each post an Iroquois was nonville was also secretly preparing a siz- women, their children and old men cap- tied by the neck, hands, and feet.... A able army to attack their villages. In June, tured and other warriors driven into the number of Indians attached to the ex- he left Montreal with 830 soldiers from pedition, all of whom were Christian woods where they will be pursued and an- France, over 1000 Canadian militia and converts from the mission villages, nihilated by the ... savages” allied to the 300 Indians, “including a large contingent were amusing themselves by burning French.68 In March, the king approved De- of Christian Iroquois from the mission the fingers of these unfortunates in the nonville’s plan saying he looked forward bowls of their pipes, while the suffer- 36 Press for Conversion! (Issue # 69) Fall 2017 ers sang their death songs.76 ing peace, was praised by Bishop of Que- Queen Anne who used him as a bargain- Of the more than 150 captured bec, Jean-Baptiste de Saint-Vallier. He ing chip to gain the release of Baron de women and children, said Parkman, “many justified the capture of “almost 200” “sav- Méan, the dean of Liège, France.80 died at the fort.” The survivors were “bap- ages” as “hostages” and said their capture After baptising and enslaving the tized, and ... distributed among the mis- “pleased God” who had thus “favoured” Haudenosaunee’s peace envoys and “dis- sion villages in the colony.” The men were Denonville for “his piety.”78 tributing” hundreds of Indigenous wom- sent to where Bishop Saint-Vallier was no en and children to the already converted some of them were given up to their stranger to holding Indigenous people cap- “mission villages,” Gov. Denonville con- Christian relatives in the missions who tive. In fact, this bishop owned his own tinued his brutal war against the Haude- had claimed them, and whom it was not personal panis, a young slave named Ber- expedient to offend; and the rest, after nosaunee. His army went on a rampage, being baptized, were sent to France, to nard, who he brought to the Hotel-Dieu burning and looting Seneca towns and vil- share with convicts and Huguenots the de Quebec in 1690.79 Ironically, Saint-Val- lages of the Confederacy. They not only horrible slavery of the royal galleys.77 lier was later taken hostage himself. In destroyed fields and what Denonville es- The success of this heinous crime, 1704, he was captured at sea and — though timated to be 1.2 million bushels of cached in which Father Lamberville “had been not forced into slavery, let alone aboard a corn, they also desecrated Haudenosaun- used as an instrument to beguile,” “snare” French war galley — he was put under ee cemeteries by destroying their religious and “entrap” Haudenosaunee envoys seek- house arrest for five years in England by symbols and even pillaged the corpses for Tied by Faith, Bound by Law, and Reliant on ‘The Word’ By Richard Sanders omparing religion to a brand of Agnus Dei cultural captivity that — like (Lamb of God) Cchattel slavery — ties or binds people in place, may seem a merely fig- urative use of language. But before dis- regarding tropes that link faith to hu- man bondage, it is worth examining the ancient origins of the word “religion.” “Religion” has its roots in the Latin verb ligare, which literally means “to bind” or “to tie.” The prefix re- sig- nifies “intensive force.” Religion, then, literally means to tie tightly or bind se- curely. In ProtoIndoEuropean (from which Greek, Latin and Sanskrit evolv- by Francisco de Zurbaran ed) the root leig- also meant “to bind.” (circa 1635) Other English words containing the root ligare also capture the sense of being fastened, tied or bound. These in- or bind.” In English, “rely” came to mean While confidence tricks are usual- clude allegiance, alloy, ally, lien, ligament, “turn to” or “associate with,” but now ly seen as criminal acts committed by ligature, league, loyal and oblige.1 The means to “trust, depend on, fall back on, small-time flimflam artists, the complex words “law” and “legal” also stem from or put confidence in.”3 (Emphasis added.) operations of huge political and religious ligare. This etymological link was ex- Being tied or bound together by institutions rely on building bonds of con- plained by Thomas Aquinas in his theo- one’s confidence in a religious or political fidence in a shared social identity or to a logical primer on Catholicism. Writing in belief system, means putting faith in cer- particular understanding of reality. the 1260s, Aquinas explained that the word tain institutions and relying on the word As such, we must all be wary not “‘lex’ [law] is derived from ‘ligare’ [to of leaders occupying positions of trust. to become shackled, like slaves, to elabo- bind], because it binds one to act.”2 The Placing blind trust in authority figures may rate political, religious or legal fictions, binding and confining force of law can also lead to abusive relationships in which con- regardless of how widespread or popular be found in English expressions. We are fidence artists can truly prosper. these institutionalised confidence rackets ‘bound by law,’ contracts are ‘legally bind- The leaders of political parties, have become. ing,’ and while some work ‘within the con- movements and nations rely on their fol- fines of law,’ others operate ‘outside legal lowers to have utter confidence in the nar- References frameworks’ and are said to be ‘outlaws.’ ratives and beliefs that tie them together 1. Online Etymological Dictionary The verb “rely” grew from the as a group. Similarly, religions depend on www.etymonline.com 2. Thomas Aquinas, “Question 90. The es- same Latin roots as religion, i.e., re- and their members to have faith in time-hon- sence of law,” Summa Theologiae. ligare. “Rely” came into Middle English oured stories, teachings and unifying www.newadvent.org/summa/2090.htm from the Old French relier, which meant myths that fundamentalists believe must 3. “Rely,” Oxford Dictionaries “to assemble, put together; fasten, attach, be accepted as the literal truth. en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/rely Fall 2017 (Issue # 69) Press for Conversion! 37 81 grave goods. the business of buying, selling and own- The Slaves of St. Marguerite The kidnappings at Fort Frontenac, ing slaves was condoned by the Church Indian slaves were also owned by the Sis- the enslavement of peace envoys and the and by god. ters of Charity (or “Grey Nuns”) which ran devastation of Seneca communities, pro- Besides validating the legitimacy Montréal’s Hôpital Général. In fact, “the voked the Haudenosaunee to respond. of slavery for almost two millennia, the foundation of the physical support” for this Counterattacks included assaults on Can- Church also practised what it preached. hospital, says Cambridge historian Wil- ada, including one against Lachine in Throughout this period, Christian leaders liam Foster, was an Montreal where 24 were killed and 70-90 and their institutions were counted among impressive variety of unfree laborers: taken prisoner. “The Governor of Canada the slave-owning elite. female and male convicts, Indian has started an unjust war against all the In New France, “[s]lavery was a slaves, self-indentured Canadians, and [five allied] nations,” a Mohawk orator formally established institution,” ex- at least 27 British soldiers taken pris- 91 was recorded as saying, and the Haude- plained Trudel, “and as such the highest oner in the Seven Years’ War. Foster shows that the Grey Nuns nosaunee Confederacy have “desired to re- authorities in the colony, both secular and 82 who ran Montréal’s Hôpital Général venge the unjust attacks.” religious, owned slaves.” As for the colo- “formed the apex of a pyramidal structure In 1688, Denonville and his Attor- ny’s highest religious authorities, Trudel’s of over a hundred individuals, mostly men, ney General Ruette d’Auteuil, asked Lou- research “established that senior ecclesi- in various states of dependency.” Besides is XIV to allow the colonists of New astics, bishops, priests, religious and mem- Indian slaves, the nuns had indentured France to import African slaves. The king bers of religious communities all owned servants who were “bound ... to the com- granted this on May 1, 1689. Ironically, slaves.”85 By examining the biographies munity for a specific term of service.” almost 200 years later, May 1 was first cel- of the four Bishops named by Trudel, we They also had servants called donnés who ebrated as International Workers’ Day. can see that they occupied Catholicism’s “obligated themselves legally to serve the May Day activists made radical demands highest rank in Québec for almost nine Grey Sisters in perpetuity.” The donnés, such as an 8-hour work day and an end to decades: Bishop Saint-Vallier (1685- mostly men, were “not free to leave” and child labour. The epicentre of this move- 1727), Bishop Dosquet (1733-1739), were the nuns’ “movable property.” Eng- ment was Chicago, Illinois, where 100,000 Bishop Pontbriand (1740-1760), and Bish- 83 lish prisoners of war, “held against their went on strike in May 1886. Although op Plessis (1806-1825).86 will,” were bought and sold for a profit. “wage slavery” was central to their rheto- The slave-owning clergy listed by These working inmates were “as unfree as ric, they did not know that May 1 was Trudel included two Sulpicians, a Recol- any slave on the sister’s property.”92 when, two centuries earlier, it became le- let and four secular priests from St-Augus- The Grey Nuns also “imprisoned gal to import African slaves to New tin (Québec City), St-Cuthbert (Montréal), young women of questionable virtue,” held France, which then included Chicago. Detroit and Saint-Antoine-sur-Richelieu them “confined in cells” “designed for the (near Montréal).87 purpose of correction” and forced them Christianity and Slavery Besides individual priests, reli- into a “harsh” and “exhausting schedule Whenever European monarchs delegated gious orders in New France also held at of domestic work.” When the Intendant of military, political and economic agents to least 100 slaves. These included Jesuit New France, François Bigot, tried unsuc- sally forth and extend their empires, the communities in Québec City, the Sei- cessfully to close down the Grey Nuns’ quest for profits from the slave trade was gneury of Sault St. Louis (on land taken hospital in 1750, he cited complaints from rarely far behind. For many centuries, the from the Mohawks of Kahnawá:ke south their female inmates.93 holy institutions of Christendom aided this of Montreal), the parish of Saint-François- The Grey Nuns was founded and grand imperial enterprise by furnishing the du-Lac near Trois Rivières, and several led by Marguerite d’Youville. She has been finest of rationales to promote slavery. In missions in what is now the US. These revered as a saint by the Catholic church fact, for most of its 2,000-year history, the Jesuits had at least 46 slaves. Other slave- since 1990. Foster contests her official Church supplied the key doctrines justify- owning religious communities were the hagiographies by giving voice to those ing the ethics of human bondage. As the Séminaire de Montréal and the Brothers subordinated to the rigours of captivity by encyclopedia Africana states: of Charity at Louisbourg in Nova Scotia.88 It is a major irony of world history that the Grey Nuns. Using historical records, Two religious communities are on Christianity, which teaches the funda- Foster constructs counternarratives to con- Trudel’s list of the top slave-owning mental equality of all souls before God, vey the long-silenced stories of slaves held groups in New France. His list of the col- condoned for 1800 years the most un- by these nuns. This “community of wom- equal of all institutions. The early ony’s thirty leading slave owners, includ- en,” he concludes, “used the redemption Church Fathers declared that slavery ed the Jesuits, and the Seminaire de and coercion of captives as an instrument was a punishment for original sin. Me- Québec which had 31 slaves.89 to accomplish its earthly purposes.”94 dieval theologians accepted enslave- Canadian nuns also held slaves, ment of prisoners in what they classi- As the nuns’ mother superior, including those who ran two hospitals: the fied as ‘just’ wars. In the fifteenth cen- d’Youville acquired at least two Indian Hôpital-Général in Québec City which had tury the pope denounced the enslave- slaves — a teen and an 11-year old. They an Indigenous girl and a Black man in ment of Christians, while explicitly of- were among properties given to the nuns fering up ‘pagans’ as fair game.84 bondage, and the Hôtel-Dieu in Montréal by rich donors in the 1760s. The nuns also With these Christian excuses in hand, and which owned four female slaves: three In- had a Sioux slave baptised in 1774.95 in mind, well-meaning churchgoing slave digenous and one Black. Montréal’s con- For decades, Mother d’Youville owners and traders could rest easy in the vent of the Sisters of Notre Dame owned owned several slaves of her own, includ- comforting faith that their complicity in an Indigenous girl and a Black man.”90 38 Press for Conversion! (Issue # 69) Fall 2017 ing two Indian women bap- Foster called François “a on.111 For 150 years, these nuns were on tised in 1739 and 1766. In trader in captured slaves” the frontline in the genocidal mission to addition, she inherited and “a man plying the Christianise, Canadianise and “civilise” personal slaves from slave trade.” While tens of thousands of Indigenous children her husband,96 Fran- François was “official- whose ties to family, community and cul- çois, after his death in ly a furrier,” Foster ture were tragically broken. This haunting 1730. A notarised list said he “made his liv- legacy of the Grey Nuns still lives on in a of his personal effects ing as a dealer in illicit nation held captive and coerced by the self- ended with these two liquor and occasional- deceptive myths of “Canadian values” like Saint Marguerite pieces of property: ly slaves along the ex- devotion to multiculturalism, justice, free- “Panis by birth, around change routes running dom and human rights. ten or eleven years old, from the Saint Lawrence to value about 150 livres. A sec- the upper Great Lakes.”103 The Laws of Ownership: ond-calf cow, red undercoat, val- François came into the al- Catholicism and Enslavement ue about thirty livres.”97 Margue- cohol, fur and slave trades Trudel presents the slave-owning Catho- rite inherited three panis from her through his father Pierre You Youville. lic clergy and religious orders of New husband’s estate, who Foster says had As a soldier, fur trader and voyageur, France as but one segment of a whole so- probably “been under her direction Pierre was with Robert Cavalier de La ciety where human bondage was the norm. for some time.” These Indian slaves Salle when he “discovered” the Mis- (See “Who were the Slave Owners of New were “an eleven year sissippi, claimed its en- France?” p.35.) Other social groups — old boy name Pierre, tire watershed for government officials, merchants, military a Patoca male also France, and named Lou- officers and fur traders — did own more called Pierre and an- isiana for Louis XIV.104 slaves than those religious professionals other slave unnamed in the records.”98 Marguerite had even closer links to were servants of the Church. While not- On at least two occasions, the slave/fur trade because she “be- ing that “[b]ishops, priests, nuns and mem- Marguerite d’Youville fought in court longed to one of the great families of bers of religious communities ... owned a to gain ownership of a slave. Trudel New France.” Her mother’s father was hundred slaves,” Trudel called this “a rel- says her stepfather, Timothy Sullivan, Governor of Trois-Rivières, René Gault- atively small number.” But what is impor- “accused her in court of having seized” ier de Varennes. His son, Marguerite’s un- tant, he remarked, is “not the overall num- an Indian “slave from him during the cle, was none other than the infamous bers of slaves but the fact that religious night.”99 Although Trudel says the out- Pierre Gaultier de La Vérendrye!105 owned slaves at all.”112 come of this case was not recorded, the While two of her brothers were priests, While Trudel saw church officials story continues in another case. Foster Marguerite’s little brother, Christophe, as a distinct social group that owned rela- richard reveals how, when Sullivan died in sanders took up the family fur-trade business tively few slaves, he saw this complicity 1738, Marguerite was set to inherit his collage and was La Vérendrye’s “second in as inevitable. The church, he suggested, panis. But Sullivan’s Indian slave wanted command” during expeditions beyond was merely going along with a social sys- to stay with Marguerite’s mother and con- Lake Superior in the 1730s.106 tem created by others: tested the transfer of his ownership to Mar- Marguerite’s father Christophe, a In a society where slavery was sanc- guerite. Upon defeating his court chal- squire and lieutenant,107 owned a female tioned by law, practiced by the most prominent people, and widely accepted lenge, d’Youville “took possession of the panise from the Great Lakes region who 100 as a social fact, we do not see why the audacious slave on the spot.” was born around 1706. After Christophe clergy would have acted differently Timothy Sullivan (a.k.a. Timothée died in 1708, ownership of this slave from the rest of society: the Church, Silvain) was a violent Irish con man and passed to Marguerite’s mother. This after all, had the same property quack doctor who used fake credentials panise, who remained enslaved for her rights.113 (Emphasis added.) to pretend that he was of noble stock. Even entire life, died at age 30.108 But the Catholic clergy was not the Intendant of New France, Gilles Hoc- When John Paul II canonised her separate from “the rest of society” and did quart, said Sullivan was “a charlatan that in 1990, she became the first Canadian- not follow the lead of others. Catholicism all sensible people ... have abandoned” and born female saint. Besides her supposed was the colony’s central organising force. “in whom no one has confidence.”101 “miracle” cure of a leukemia patient, Mar- In fact, it dominated almost all aspects of Marguerite’s husband, François, guerite’s main claim to fame was found- life throughout the French empire, includ- was another slave-owning scoundrel. Hag- ing the Grey Nuns. Beginning operations ing the laws governing slave owners and iographic accounts regularly note that with Montréal’s Hôpital Général, they be- their “property rights.” The Church was François peddled furs and alcohol. For ex- came one of Canada’s largest teaching and leading, not following, the masses. ample, the Jesuits of Winnipeg, in their nursing orders.109 Slavery in the French empire was 2016 “Saint of the Week” biography of The Truth and Reconciliation Com- governed by the (1685). Issued Marguerite, call François “a fur trader and mission states that although the Grey Nuns by King Louis XIV, this law regulated en- bootlegger who sold liquor illegally to in- had no credentials qualifying them as slavement in the West Indies. No specific digenous people.”102 Such narratives fail teachers,110 they were a dominant force Code was issued to deal with slavery in to note his involvement — and hers — in within Catholic-run Indian residential the northern reaches of New France. If the more despicable business of slavery. schools across Canada from the 1840s such a law had existed, said Trudel, it Fall 2017 (Issue # 69) Press for Conversion! 39 would more appropriately have been called “Code Rouge since Amerindian slaves (called ‘rouges’ or red- skins) outnumbered black slaves.” Although slave own- ers in what became Canada had no law governing slavery, they “generally complied with provisions of the Code Noir ... even when not re- quired to do so.”114 The Code began with the king declaring that he reigned “by the grace of God” and “Divine Providence.” The law’s purpose, he de- creed, was not just “to regu- late the status and condition BC. Alert Bay, Residential School, Michael’s St. of the slaves” “in our ameri- collage: richard sanders can islands,” it was issued to “maintain the The Mass Captivity of Religion: While the whole society was bound togeth- discipline” of the Church. The edict’s first Identity, Belonging, Education er by ties to the church, this cultural bond- eight articles show just how closely Ca- While Trudel saw the church as one small age did not need to rely on physical con- tholicism and slavery were shackled to- slave-owning segment of society in New straints such as fences, walls, bars, chains gether within a single legal system: France, the fact is that — by law — all of or manacles. (See “Tied by Faith, Bound 1. “[A]ll the Jews ... [and other] declared this colony’s slaves and slave masters had by Law, and Reliant on ‘The Word,’” enemies of the Christian name” must to be Catholic. Whether they were politi- p.37.) Nevertheless, the church exerted a be “evicted” “or face confiscation of cians, military officers, professionals, form of social control that held individu- body and property.” tradespeople or religious leaders, all slave als, organisations and the government 2. All slaves must be “baptized and in- owners belonged to the Catholic Church. firmly in place. So strong was the bond- structed” in the Catholic religion. This concept of social belonging age of this religious social order that it is 3. The “public exercise” of other faiths returns us to the issues of ownership and not unreasonable to liken the life of this was forbidden and “offenders” were to property rights. Just as religious adherents colony’s subjects to the sorry lot of slaves. be “punished as rebels.” are said to belong to a faith, their leaders The colonial subjects most tightly 4. Only Catholics could own slaves “on often possess the reciprocal belief that as bound by the church were those belong- pain of confiscation of negres.” church authorities they have a duty to con- ing to religious orders. Among them were 5. Those of “the so-called reformed reli- trol their flocks. In the same way that shep- such nuns as Catherine de St. Augustin and gion” (i.e. Protestants) were forbidden herds own and command their sheep, the Marie de l’Incarnation who took vows as to “disturb or prevent” Catholics, “even church held near absolute dominion over “slaves of Mary.”118 The former was in- their slaves,” from “the free exercise” its faithful flock in New France. strumental in founding the Hôtel-Dieu de of their religion, “on pain of exempla- The idea that the church should rule Québec, while the latter was the mother ry punishment.” over those belonging to it has been slow superior of the first Ursuline Order. Both 6. No one, including slaves, could work to fade away. For example, in 1938, Pope orders owned slaves.119 The Ursulines, in on Sundays or Catholic holidays “on Pius XI argued that the idea of totalitarian their fervour to convert “savages,” started pain of fine and discretionary punish- governments was absurd. As he put it, “if some of Canada’s first residential schools. ment of the masters and confiscation there is a totalitarian regime — in fact and “We met many savages when we went of the ... slaves.” by right — it is the regime of the church, ashore,” said Marie de l’Incarnation, upon 7. Slave markets were forbidden from because man belongs totally to the arriving from France in 1639, and they operating on Sundays or Catholic hol- church.”117 (Emphasis added.) During his were “amazed when told that we had come idays on pain of fines and the “confis- reign (1922-1939), this pope worked to teach their children.”120 cation of the merchandise.” closely with Mussolini’s fascist regime. While the subjects of New France 8. NonCatholics could not marry and The totalitarian systems of the Vatican and were ritually bound together and to their children “born of such [invalid] un- the Italian state shared the twin pathologies priests by the liturgy of the mass, the cap- ions” were declared “bastards.”115 of anti-communism and antiSemitism. tivating beliefs which tied them tightly to A second Code Noire, issued by For centuries, Catholicism held al- Catholicism were imposed at an early age King Louis XV in 1724, regulated slavery most total control over life in New France, by church control of all formal education. in Louisiana. It retained all of the laws reg- Lower Canada and then Quebec. Citizens, For centuries, the parish clergy and mis- ulating strict adherence to the Catholic leaders and institutions lived under the sionaries — including Jesuits, Récollets faith, not only by slaves but their by their powerful sway of religious authorities and and Ursulines — provided religious in- masters as well.116 their strict doctrines, codes and ideologies. doctrination as well as basic lessons in 40 Press for Conversion! (Issue # 69) Fall 2017 O Canada! O Canada! Our home and native land! Land of our ancestors True patriot love in all thy sons command. Glorious deeds circle your brow With glowing hearts we see thee rise, For your arm knows how to wield the sword The True North strong and free! Your arm knows how to carry the cross; From far and wide, Your history is an epic O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. of brilliant deeds God keep our land glorious and free! O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. And your valour steeped in faith (Official English version.) Will protect our homes and our rights. (Translation of the Preamble to the Constitution of Canada’s Charter of official French version.) Rights and Freedoms (1982): “Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law.” arithmetic, history, natural science, read- their families and home communities,” References ing and writing. The inculcation into Cath- said the chair of Canada’s Truth and Re- 1. Afua Cooper, “The Secret of Slavery in olic teachings helped ensure the absorp- conciliation Commission, “seven genera- Canada,” Gender and Women’s Studies in tion of children into the body of the church tions of aboriginal children were denied Canada: Critical Terrain, M.H.Hobbs and Carla Rice (eds.), 2013, p.254. by securing their early commitment to the their identity through a systematic and con- books.google.ca/books?id=t5PlT9B4CM0C

“true faith.” Church-run schools were a certed effort.” The purpose, continued Jus- 2. Ibid., p.255. collage: richard sanders primary means of ensuring the servility of tice Murray Sinclair, was “to extinguish 3. Afua Cooper, The Hanging of Angélique: colonial subjects to religious authorities their culture, language and spirit.”121 Be- The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery & the that dominated social life in New France. sides enforcing genocide and a slavish de- Burning of Old Montréal, 2006, p.8. Besides controlling all levels of the votion to religious beliefs, these Christian 4. Cooper 2013, ibid. limited schooling available to colonists, facilities had another nefarious function. 5. George Elliott Clarke, “Foreword,” in Cooper 2006, p.xii. Catholics created the first schools for In- They were part of a Canada-wide scheme 6. Ibid. digenous children in what is now Canada. to exploit Indigenous children and youth 7. Abigail Bakan, “Reconsidering the Under- From 1620 to 1680, Catholic boarding as a valuable source of forced labour. ground Railroad: Slavery & Racialization in schools oversaw the supposed civilisation As such, these “schools’ kept Ca- the Making of the Canadian State,” Social- of savages who were deemed inferior, if nada’s vile institution of slavery alive and ist Studies, Spring 2008, p.4. not evil. By cutting links between Indian well for 150 more years. While allegedly tinyurl.com/y73zq9fh 8. Ibid. children and their families, communities dedicated to civilising, Christianising and 9. Katherine McKittrick, “Freedom is a Secret: and cultures, these institutions were seen Canadianising inferior cultures, they pro- The Future Usability of the Underground,” as the best way to compel obedience to vided benevolent cover stories to justify Black Geographies and the Politics of Place, church authorities and doctrines. In short, and legitimise the genocidal intent of co- 2007. pp.98-99. residential schools were tools of subjuga- lonial elites. And, by perpetuating the slav- mbones.tumblr.com/post/1516478634 tion and assimilation. This put Catholics ery of Indigenous people under the guise 10. Cooper 2006, op. cit., p.69. at the forefront of Canada’s centuries-long, of education, these “schools” protected 11. Allen P.Stouffer, Light of Nature and the genocidal mission to dominate and destroy Canada’s duplicitous self-image as a lov- Law of God: Antislavery in Ontario, 1833- 1877, 1992. Indigenous cultures. ing force for goodness and Godliness. books.google.ca/books?id=B7fs9Dv3hS0C In the early 1830s, just as slavery The institutionalised, nation-build- 12. Constance Backhouse, Colour-coded: A was officially outlawed throughout the ing myth that Canada is a Peaceable King- Legal History of Racism in Canada, 1900- British empire, Indian residential schools dom is this country’s most potent and uni- 1950, 1999. sprang up and were spread like a cultural fying political mass delusion. Functioning books.google.ca/books?id=BZlsTAH7GWIC 13. Jill Vickers, The Politics of Race: Canada, disease across the Canadian colonies. as a sacred truth within Canada’s official Australia, the U.S., 2002, p.73. Catholic and Protestant churches alike state religion, this mythology captures ad- books.google.ca/books?id=AzQq-yiZ3k0C spawned these facilities in order to sup- herents within an ideological system akin 14. Abolition of slavery timeline posedly “uplift” Indigenous people with to cultural slavery. These self-righteous be- tinyurl.com/ytc6cm the advanced moral traditions and work liefs not only help to bind Canadians to- 15. Cooper 2013, op. cit., p.264. 16. Marcel Trudel, Canada’s Forgotten Slaves: habits of Canada’s mainstream society. gether as a fictive nation, they provide an Two Hundred Years of Bondage, 2013, While the United Church and its Method- important social-defence mechanism that p.254. ist and Presbyterian forebears operated a shields believers from the realisation that 17. Ibid., p.268. tenth of Canada’s Indian residential in the fervour to help others, Canada has 18. Ibid., p.103. schools, the Anglicans ran 30 percent, and sometimes denigrated and abused them. 19. Ibid., pp.268-269. 60 percent were under Catholic control. By examining historic truths about 20. Ibid., p.103. Before the last of these institutions how Canadian churches and the state col- 21. Ibid., pp.111-112. of genocide was finally closed in 1996, laborated to capture, enslave and assimi- 22. Ibid., p.269. 23. Ibid., back cover. more than 150,000 First Nations, Métis late Indigenous peoples and others, we 24. Ibid., pp.270-271. and Inuit children had been forced into may be able to free ourselves from the cap- 25. Ibid., pp.266-267. captivity within Canada’s 139 state-fund- tivating yet fictive myths that form the 26. Ibid., p.260. ed residential schools. “Removed from cultural foundation of Canada itself. 27. Ibid., p.63. Fall 2017 (Issue # 69) Press for Conversion! 41 28. Ibid., p.136. tinyurl.com/yakhepfq Henry Gates, Jr. (eds.), 2004, p.772. 29. Ibid., p.57. 61. What We Have Learned: Principles of tinyurl.com/ya3z33fb 30. William R. Riddell, “The Slave in Canada,” Truth and Reconciliation, 2015, p.15. 85. Trudel, op. cit., pp.104, 269 The Journal of Negro History, July 1920, tinyurl.com/zln9dsj 86. See separate entries for these bishops in Vol.V, No.3, p.268. Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Dictionary of Canadian Biography 31. Trudel, op. cit., p.76. Future, 2015, p.47. www.biographi.ca 87. Trudel, op. cit., pp.112-113. 32. In Brett Rushforth, Bonds of Alliance: In- books.google.ca/books?id=-rA9CgAAQBAJ digenous and Atlantic Slaveries in New 62. Honourary Witness, Robert Waisman, Jew- 88. Ibid., pp.112-113, 115. France, 2012, p.395. ish Holocaust Survivor, p.331 89. Ibid., p.117 tinyurl.com/ybpqvcj3 90. Ibid., pp.114-115. 33. Trudel, op. cit., p.70. 63. Honouring the... Op. cit., pp.193-194. 34. Ibid., p.78. 91. William Henry Foster, The Captors’ Nar- 64. “Extract of a letter addressed by Louis XIV rative: Catholic Women and Their Puritan 35. Brett Rushforth, “The Origins of Indian to Monsieur de la Barre, July 21, 1684,” ,” The William & Men on the Early American Frontier, 2003, The Documentary History of the State of p.91. Mary Quarterly, Oct.2003, pp.802, 777. New-York, Vol.1, E.B. O’Callaghan (ed.), www.jstor.org/stable/3491699 tinyurl.com/yctxncpq 36. Trudel, ibid., p.84. 1850, p.72. 92. Ibid., pp.91-100. books.google.ca/books?id=nEtSAAAAcAAJ 37. Ibid., p.27. 93. Ibid., pp.97-98. 65. Ibid., p.73 38. Ibid., pp.107-108. 94. Foster, op. cit., p.106. 66. W.H. Lewis, The Splendid Century: Life 39. Ibid., p.117. 95. Trudel, op. cit., pp.114, 258. in the France of Louis XIV, 1957, p.214. 40. Ibid., p.76. 96. Ibid., pp.114-115. tinyurl.com/ychn4k3g 97. Ibid., pp.85-86. 41. Rushforth, op. cit., p.793. 67. “Memoir of the Marquis of Seignelay,” 98. Foster, op. cit., p.96. 42. Ibid., p.798. O’Callaghan, op. cit., pp.320-321. 43. Ibid., p.799 . books.google.ca/books?id=rixTAAAAcAAJ 99. Trudel, op. cit., p.99. 44. Three Years Travels through the Interior 68. Ibid., p.321. 100. Foster, op. cit., p97. Parts of North America, 1798, p.177. In 69. “Extracts from a Memoir of the King,” 101. Peter Moogk, “Timothy Sullivan,” Dic- Rushforth, op. cit., p. 808. Versailles, Mar. 30, 1687, O’Callaghan, op. tionary of Canadian Biography, Vol.3, 45. Ibid. cit., p.322. 1974. 46. Karlee Sapoznik, “Where the Historiogra- 70. C.J.Jaenen, “Lamberville, Jean de,” Dic- tinyurl.com/y925mgqf 102. “Saint of the Week,” Community of St. phy Falls Short: La Vérendrye through the tionary of Canadian Biography, 1969. Lens of Gender, Race and Slavery in Early tinyurl.com/y9cpcfnv Ignatius, Winnipeg, Oct. 16, 2016. tinyurl.com/y9j3g3pk French Canada, 1731-1749,” Manitoba 71. “Extracts from a Memoir...” ibid. 103. Foster, op. cit., p.95. History, Winter 2009. 72. Daniel P. Barr, Unconquered: The Iroquois tinyurl.com/y7ggsbc5 104. Person Sheet, Pierre You League at War in Colonial America, 2006, tinyurl.com/y8q2yun5 47. Trudel, op. cit., p.108. p.87. 105. Claudette Lacelle, “Dufrost de 48. Yves F. Zoltvany, “Gaultier de Varennes et books.google.ca/books?id=vi1ROx0PmI4C Lajemmerais, Marie-Marguerite,” Diction- de La Vérendrye, Pierre,” Dictionary of 73. Francis Parkman, France and England in ary of Canadian Biography, 1979. Canadian Biography, 1974. North America, Part 5, Count Frontenac tinyurl.com/ydyrjymc tinyurl.com/y8tpn89p and New France under Louis XIV, 1877, 106. Antoine Champagne, “Dufrost De La 49. Ibid. p.138. Jemerais, Christophe,” Dictionary of Ca- 50. Denis Combet, “La Vérendrye: Archetypal 74. Barbara Alice Mann, Native American nadian Biography, Vol.2, 1969. Ideal of the Voyageur.” Speakers of the Eastern Woodlands: Se- tinyurl.com/ybept8sc tinyurl.com/y8p6lj6a lected Speeches and Critical Analyses, 107. Person Sheet, Christophe Dufrost 51. Pure Gold Coin – Great Canadian Explorers 2001, p.44. tinyurl.com/ydf69p6l Series: Pierre Gaultier de La Vérendrye tinyurl.com/yc9vk3so 108. Foster, op. cit., p.76. tinyurl.com/y827xnda 75. Parkman, op. cit., p.141. 52. Zoltvany, op. cit. 109. Canada’s Residential Schools: History, 76. Ibid., pp.139, 142 53. Trudel, op. cit., p.58. Origins to 1939, Vol.1, 2015, p.90. 77. Ibid., p.139. tinyurl.com/yb3zgbhj 54. Fur Trade, Canadian Encyclopedia tinyurl.com/y7d3pbkg 78. Jean Baptiste de La Croix de Chevriers De 110. Ibid., p.96. Saint-Valier, Estat present de l’Eglise et de 111. Ibid., p.89. Economic Activities: Fur Trade, History la Colonie Françoise dans la Nouvelle 112. Trudel, op. cit., p.115. Museum tinyurl.com/y82hkrvm France, 1856, pp.91-92. 113. Ibid., pp.111-112. books.google.ca/books?id=OTlfAAAAcAAJ 114. Ibid., p.122. Tangi Villerbu, “French-Canadian Trappers 79. Trudel, op. cit., pp.27, 112. 115. The “Code Noir” (1685) of the American Plains & Rockies.” 80. Alfred Rambaud, “Jean-Baptiste de La tinyurl.com/ybxurtak tinyurl.com/ybnmlnl6 Croix de Chevrières de St-Vallier,” Diction- 116. Louisiana’s Code Noir (1724) 55. Black Enslavement in Canada. tinyurl.com/y6uzupyh tinyurl.com/yc2trvqx ary of Canadian Biography, 1969. 117. David Kertzer, The Pope and Mussolini: 56. Population: Slavery, History Museum tinyurl.com/ybnzf3vq tinyurl.com/jc92tew 81. Daniel K. Richter, The Ordeal of the Secret History of Pius XI & the Rise of 57. Key word search within this source Longhouse: The Peoples of the Iroquois Fascism in Europe, 2014, p.153. tinyurl.com/ydhdgsgo League in the Era of European Coloniza- tinyurl.com/ybdmnn2y 58. Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La tion, 1992, p.158. 118. Cornelius John Jaenen, The Relations Vérendrye, Canadian Encyclopedia 82. Ibid., pp.159-160. Between Church and State in New France, tinyurl.com/yazbcopr 83. Eric Chase, The Brief Origins of May Day, 1647-1685, 1962, p.578. The Explorers: Pierre Gaultier de Varennes 1993. 119. Trudel, p.115. et de La Vérendrye, History Museum tinyurl.com/y9vgsk2l 120. Robert Carney, “Aboriginal Residential tinyurl.com/ycjozemz 84. John Burdick, “Catholic Church in Latin Schools before Confederation: The Early Combet, op. cit. America and the Caribbean,” Africana: Experience,” Historical Studies (Canada), 59. Zoltvany, op. cit. Encyclopedia of the African and African 61, 1995, p.13. 60. Keyword search of the AFN website American Experience, Anthony Appiah and 121. Canada’s Residential..., op. cit., p.vii. 42 Press for Conversion! (Issue # 69) Fall 2017