Page 135 - Transcriptions d'actes notariés - Tome 20 - 1682-1686

slavery was a reality. -4nd to enforce the custom on this point, he
enacted, "Nous sous le bon plaisit de Sa Majesté ordonnona, que tous les
Panis et Nègres qui onk été achetés et qui le seront dans la suite, appar-
tiendront eu pleine propriété à ceux qui les ont aehetés comme étant leurs
eslavefi."(')
Nolhing could indicaie more elearly the existence of a sbve class,
hnwevcr small, in New France, and the conccrii of the autho~ities to
regularize and protcct thie kind of property. Although there appear tn
be no incidents resembling ~he slavc rebellions which occurred rarely in
the Brilish colonies 10 the south, there were oceasions when filaves
expressed themstlves soinewhat dramatically . A Negro woman beIonging
to Madaine de Franeheville in Montreal set fire 10 her mistress's home
on the night of 10th ApriI, 11734. In the ensujng fire, part of Montreal
was destrnyed. Fur this crime: the offending slave was tried, and
sentenced to death. She was haiiged June, 1734.131
Since ivi~h some of ihe culonists, the serious nature of the legal
bond which kept the slave in servitude meaut very litile. &O little that they
freed ~heir slaves verlially and sent them on their way, on 1st September,
1736. the Inteudan t Gilles Hoequart promulgated an ordiriance comrnand-
ing that the manurniasion of slaves must be by notarial act, and that any
other form of manuini~sion was invalid.'")
With the conquest of Qnebec by the British, the status of Negro and
Indian slaves owned by French colonists was guaranteed by the Artieles
of Capitnlatioii. The 47th Artiele stated, that "the Kegroes and Panis
of both Sexes shall remain in possessioii of the French and Canadians
to whom they lielong; they shall be at liberty to keep them iii their
service iu the Colony or sel1 them: and they may also continue to bririg
them II~ iti the Roman religion."")
Althuugh slavery was ended in Eiigland by the judicial decision of
the Kiiig's Berich, handed dowii Ly Lord MansfieId, on 22 June, 1772,
(Lord Wyndham estimates that arourid 14,Oûû Negro slaves were freed) ,
the decision had no efiect in the rest of the British Enipire. Emancipa-
tiori thronghout ihe Empire had to await the action of the Imperia1
Parliament in 1833. When, therefore, the War of Anieriean IndePen-
dence drove thousandu of loyal Aineriean suhjects of the Crowri riorth-
wards, they brought with them in sorne cases their Negro slaves.
Father Jean-Baprute Loba6
However difficult it is to firid opinions regarding Negro slavery in
the sevenieenth and early eighteen th centuries, there are a few gourees.
One of rhese is the rnemoirs of Father Jean-Bap~iste Labat. This Frerieh
Prieet WOB a Dorninican of the Jacobin variety, who travelled from
Franee to Martinique in 16M. This eminentIy human Dominican

(4) Idem, pp. 265-266.
(2' ldem, p. 267.
(8' Idcni, p. 267.
iy) ldem, p. 268.