The Hanging of Angelique The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery And The Burning Of Old Montreal by Dr. Afua Cooper with a Foreword by George Elliott Clarke
“The roof, the roof, the roof is on Fire…”
As I watched cities in the United States burn during the summer of 2019, I was reminded of why protesters, who are not to be confused with demonstrators, burn buildings and immediately I thought of Angelique and the symbols that fire represent in literature; passion, desire, rebirth, eternity, destruction, hope, hell, purification, and freedom! I also thought of Harriette Tubman. Marie Joseph Angelique was a Portuguese slave who was brought to Montreal, Canada in 1725 by her Fleming owner, Nichus Block who sold her to Sieur Francheville, a fur trader as a part of his mortgage. Marie Joseph Angelique was not her name when she arrived in Montreal, so she may not have been baptized in Portugal even though it is a Catholic country. She was baptized by law in Canada, because slaves were required to be baptized and were given a baptismal name. I am reminded of slaves across the world who lost their names and given names by their owners. These are the names some carry to this day. By the time Angelique was twenty years old, she was sold at least twice, endured the passage to North America, gave birth and lost the babies, accused, tired and found guilty of arson and eventually maimed and hung. “Ain’t she a woman?”
Like many students in the United States, I was taught that slaves in the United States fled to Canada for freedom. This statement and many more like this are a testament to HiStory and not the real story. In fact, it is possible to complete graduate studies in Canadian Studies and not know that Canada participated in the slave trade for over two hundred years. I have been planning this review since I left Montreal, Canada the summer of 2018. Before going to Montreal for The Montreal International Jazz Festival, I booked a Black Montreal Tour that changed my perception of Canada and enlightened me of the slave trade in Canada. The walking tour was the absolute best tour that I have experienced thanks to the tour guide Rito Joseph. It was Joseph who introduced me to Angelique and HerStory and I am grateful for that, because I could not forget her. I knew that someone had to have written about her story and after an Internet search, I found The Hanging of Angelique The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and The Burning of Old Montreal, by Dr. Afua Cooper, with a Foreword by George Elliott Clarke. While slaves in the United States were seeking freedom in Canada, Angelique’s burning desire for freedom was to leave Canada and return to the only home she knew-Portugal. In Chapter II, Cooper gives us a brief history of The Atlantic slave trade in Africa and its origins in maritime Portugal. In fact, during the 15th and 16th centuries Evora, Portugal had more Black people than White. Although she was a slave, Angelique’s trial records revealed that she did experience more pleasures than slaves south of Canada. For example, “she took walks along the banks of the river and meadows outside the city walls, drank with neighbors, spoke with soldiers, and visited the sick in the hospitals.” In addition to those simple pleasures, Angelique managed to have two love affairs, and two pregnancies. In 1731, Angelique gave birth to a son, Eustache and named Jacques Cesar, a slave from Madagascar as the father. Unfortunately, the baby lived for only a month. In 1732, Angelique gave birth to twins; a boy and a girl. She named them Louis and Marie-Francoise respectively. Louis lived two days and his twin sister lived for five months. Baby Louis’ father was listed as Jacques Cesar, but his sister’s father was listed as unknown on the baptismal record. Scandalous and confusing, yet in slavery it did not matter since slaves were the property of their masters, including children. Cooper notes that the phrase “father unknown” on the baptismal record of slave children was often used as a cover-up to hide the fact that the father of the child was a White male, usually the owner of the mother.” With the exception of baptism, the same was true for African slaves all over the world.
Angelique was a feisty woman, which would be considered “an angry Black woman” by the oppressor, however I believe that she was a Badass; fearless, determined and passionate. She wanted to break from the chains of slavery and simply go home. She was physically enslaved, but she did not allow herself to be shackled mentally and spiritually. The trial records reveal that Angelique disputed her mistress and spoke back to her regularly. Clearly Angelique had to have been bi-lingual as she spoke Portuguese and French and she may have been multilingual since she landed in New England, before her journey to Canada.
In short, here is the story of how Angelique’s passion for freedom set Old Montreal on fire. Apparently, Jacques Caesar was not the only man Angelique entertained intimately. An indentured servant and Frenchman named Claude Thibault captured her attention. Thibault shared Angelique’s passion for freedom, because he was in the employ of Francheville under contract. Both Thibault and Angelique stirred trouble in the Franceville household and Madam Franceville threatened to sell Angelique. Begging not to be sold, Angelique promised to behave, but of course she did not behave. She and her French lover were sent to live with the Madame’s brother-in-law. Angelique had already threatened Madame Franceville with burning the house down with the Madame in it several times. Further, Thibault represented a pathway to freedom since he was White, and she could pose as his slave. Like the best made plans, there was a glitch and while Angelique thought her lover would free her of Canada, he instead disappeared and left her to be tortured and eventually hung. While it is not clear whether she started the fire that destroyed Old Montreal, because no one saw her start the fire nor does a threat render someone guilty, but she was accused of starting the fire in the attic of her mistress’s house.
I do not want to reveal any more of the horrid details of Angelique’s trial and demise. You must order this book and learn more about slavery in Canada, specifically Marie Joseph Angelique.
Maybe @heysharonc will create a lipstick shade for Angelique @uomabeauty.