Page 134 - Transcriptions d'actes notariés - Tome 20 - 1682-1686

retnained LO ~he very day in 1833 when the lmprial Parliament abolished
slavery in the British Empire.
William Renwick Riddell, a late Justice of the Ontario Supreme
eourt, in the very early pari of lhis cenlury became interes~ed in the legal
po~iliou of the slave in the British Ernpire, and in the slow legal steps
whieh eventually led hrst to a slight ameliora~ion of his conditiori, until
finally the slave beeame a thing oi the past. His research led him to a
itiuch negleeted field of Canadian his~ory wherein he unearthed a
treasure-house ol iniormation. As a result, his lengthy arid eareinl,
scholarly articles tell a tale which places Canada of the colonial period
squarely o~i ~he margin 01 the dynamic world oi European exparision in
whieh itiercantile economies regarded ~he trade in Negro slaves ae
indispensable.
Acenrdirig tn Justice Riddell's researches ~he first Negro slave on
rccord in Quetec was brought there by the first English conqueror of
Quebec, David Kirke. in 1628. This Negro slavc, however, rernained
a eoinplete riovclty piiicp jt WB5 not untjl lGa8 that Gnvernor L)erionville
arid Intendant L)cChampiFny of New Frane~ wrotr tu thc Freneh Secretary
of State eomplainiiig of the starriiy anil exyeiiw oi labour in ~he eolony.
They went on to suEEe%t that ii tli~ Royal Gov~rnrnent agreed aome of
Qucbec's chier eitizeiiti would be willinp to pitrchasc Regro slaves frnm
the Guinea Coast iii the West Iiidies as a rernedy- for the labor shortage
which was tedevilling Quehec. The Secrerary of State inrwarded the
Kirids serinission tut warned the coloniats that the cold elimate tif
. .
U 1
Cariada rrij,qht prove dangerous 10 ~he Negroes, and thus cause thc
experiinent to fail.'2)
lndian slaves are to be found occaiionally amorigst the eolonists at
this period. These slaves uere callrd "panis" - a terrn whieh ha5 an
undetermined origin. That such a clas5 existed is reetigriized by the
Treaiy of Pcace and Neutrality in Arnetiea signed at London, November
16th, 11526 betwcen Kitig Louis SIV of France and, his friend and
admirer, Kirig James II. of England. Ariicle 10 of ihis treaiy promifies
a halt to ariy furiher seiznres of Freneh or British Indians, their prriperly
or their slaves. The slaves of the Indians weie obtaiued iri much the
same way as were the Negro slaves of the Guiuea Coast: thev wi:re
prisoncrs of ivar. It was these captives who formed the "panis" class
and who sometimes worked for the early Frerich eolonist. (3)
On April 13th, 1709, the Intendant, Jacqncs Raudot, issned an
ordinarice reminding the colonisia of the advautages of yoesessinp Negro
slaves and the savages caHd "pariis", and at the same time regretting the
tendericy of eome "pariiriis" to eseape their masters tecauw [if ihe unseiiling
irifluence of other colonists who tell the Indian slaves that in Frauce [here
are no slaves. The Interidant reminded such early, amateur aboljtjoiiiçts
that whatever ihe ease in France might be, in the overseas Frenrh E~iipire.

(2) Riddcll, William K., "The Slave in Canada", C.I., The lour~l D/ ,l'egrv
History, July, 1920, Vol. V, No. 3, p. 263.
(3) Idem;, pp. 264-265.
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