Marie-Joseph Angélique

Marie-Joseph Angélique (commonly known as Angélique; died June 21, 1734) was the name given by her last owners to a Portuguese-born black slave in New France (later the province of Quebec in Canada). She was tried and convicted of setting fire to her owner's home, burning much of what is now referred to as Old Montreal.

Early life and the fire of 1734

Circa 1710, Angélique was born in Portugal, an important player in the lucrative Atlantic slave trade, and was later sold to a Flemish man named Nichus Block or Nicolas Bleeker who brought her to the New World. She lived in New England before being sold in 1725 to an important French businessman from Montreal named François Poulin de Francheville, and after his death in 1733 belonged to his wife Thérèse de Couagne. Slavery in New England and New France was primarily a domestic affair, since unlike the southern part of what would become the United States the economy was not based on large-scale plantation labour. Angélique therefore worked in the Francheville home in Montreal, and occasionally helped on the family's small farm on the island of Montreal, which was primarily used to produce supplies for Francheville's trading expeditions.

Angélique had three children while in Montréal: a boy born in 1731 who lived only one month and twins in 1732, who had both died within five months. The father listed in the baptismal records was Jacques César, a black slave from Madagascar who belonged to Ignace Gamelin, a friend of Francheville. It is not known whether Angélique and César were lovers by choice or whether their owners forced them to breed. At any rate, during the year preceding the fire and the trial, Angélique appears to have had a relationship with an indentured white servant, Claude Thibault, who was employed by the Franchevilles.

The upheaval and uncertainty in the household following on Francheville’s death in November 1733 involved Mme Francheville in many transactions while settling his estate and attempting to run his businesses. Early in 1734, being occupied with estate affairs in Three-Rivers, the widow asked her brother-in-law Alexis Monière to keep both her slave and her indentured servant Claude Thibault for her until her return.

On February 22, while the widow Francheville was still away, Angélique and Thibault attempted to escape to New England, fleeing across the frozen St. Lawrence river and stopping to retrieve bread Thibault had hidden in a barn in Longueuil in preparation for their trip. However, travel was difficult in winter, and the two were forced to hide in Châteauguay, near the Chambly road, until the weather improved. They were captured a couple of weeks later and returned to Montreal by three militia captains, acting in their capacity as local police. Thibault was imprisoned on March 5th and only released on April 8th, the day before the fire. Angélique visited him several times while he was in jail and brought him food. .

Angélique was simply returned to Madame de Francheville, who did not have her disciplined in any way for her attempted flight, possibly because she was already planning to sell her. As mentioned during the trial, Thérèse de Francheville found herself unable to control Angélique and intended to accept an offer by one of her deceased husband’s business associates, François-Étienne Cugnet, to purchase her for 600 pounds of gunpowder. The offer was conditional on the widow covering expenses for sending Angélique to Quebec City, where Cugnet lived. Fear of being sold and possibly ending up in the West Indies may have been a factor in the attempted escape.

Tensions were high between the slave and her mistress. The widow Francheville dismissed a free servant, Louise Poirier, because of squabbling and disagreements between slave and servant. Angélique promised her that she could do all the work better than Poirier, possibly hoping that a good performance on her part would make her mistress relent and keep her. The widow gave in, but promised Poirier that she would contact her after Angélique had been shipped to Quebec City.

After Thibault's release, he visited de Couagne to demand his outstanding wages, who paid them but warned Thibault to never "set foot in her house again". Angry, she also confirmed to him that Angélique had in fact been sold and would be shipped to Quebec City as soon as the ice cleared. Thibault ignored this order, and visited Angélique at home several times while de Couagne was not at home. As this was early April, they both would have known that the St. Lawrence River would soon be passable to ships, and that Angélique would not be in Montreal much longer. Angélique told a servant that she intended to run away again, and it is possible that the two discussed setting another fire to again cover their escape.

In the evening of April 10, 1734, while her owner was at church, Angélique was seen running from the door of her house, crying "fire!" Neighbours attempted to put out the blaze, but it spread quickly and within three hours, forty-six buildings were destroyed, including much of the merchant sector along rue Saint-Paul, as well as the hospital and convent Hôtel-Dieu. No-one was injured in the blaze. As Angélique and Thibault helped save goods from the burning houses, rumours began to circulate accusing her of having set the fire; later in the evening, the convent's gardener, Louis Bellefeuille dit LaRuine even told her face-to-face about these rumours, although she denied them. The root of the rumours seems to have been comments made by Marie-Manon, the young panis (Indian) slave owned by De Couagne's neighbours, the Bérey des Essars, who claimed she had heard Angélique saying that her mistress would not sleep in her house that night. By the time the fire had gone out, popular opinion held that Angélique had set the fire, and she was arrested the following morning. A warrant was also issued later for Thibault, but although he was seen again on the Tuesday morning following the fire (two days later), by the time the bailiffs set out to arrest him he had disappeared and was never seen again in New France.

Trial and execution

Angélique was charged and tried. French law at the time allowed for suspects to be arrested on the basis of "public knowledge" when the community was agreed upon their guilt . Over the next six weeks, the prosecution called a large number of witnesses, none of whom claimed to have seen Angélique set the fire, but who were certain that she had done it. They also testified at length as to Angélique's character as a badly behaved slave who often spoke back to her owners. Yet no solid evidence was forthcoming.

Lacking sufficient evidence to condemn Angélique, the prosecution was at its wits end and contemplating asking for permission to apply torture prior to a definitive judgment, a highly unusual procedure which was rarely allowed in New France. Fortunately for the prosecutor and unfortunately for Angélique, an eye witness suddenly appears: the five year old daughter of Alexis Monière, Amable, testifies that she saw Angélique carrying a shovelful of coals up to the attic of the house on the afternoon the fire started This supposed eye-witness evidence finally allowed the prosecutor to close his case and the judge and the four commissioners he summoned to participate in the sentence all concurred that Angélique was guilty. No one questioned why it took so long for the little girl to come forward in a city where the fire and the trial would have been on every ones’ lips—too many people had lost too much and a scapegoat was necessary.

The Montreal court’s sentence was severely punitive, even given the nature of the offence and the standards of punishment applied in the 18th century. In the words of the written sentence :

"…And everything Considered, We have Declared the Said accused, Marie Joseph angelique Sufficiently guilty And Convicted of Having set fire to the house of dame francheville Causing the Burning of a portion of the city. In Reparation for which we have Condemned her to make honourable amends Disrobed, a Noose around her Neck, and carrying In her hands a flaming torch weighing two pounds before the main door and Entrance of the parish Church of This city where She will be taken And Led, by the executioner of the high Court, in a Tumbrel used for garbage, with an Inscription Front And Back, with the word, Incendiary, And there, bare-headed, And On her Knees, will declare that She maliciously set the fire And Caused the Said Burning, for which She repents And Asks Forgiveness from the Crown And Court, and this done, will have her fist Severed On a stake Erected in front of the Said Church. Following which, she will be led by the said Executioner in the same tumbrel to the Public Place to there Be bound to the Stake with iron shackles And Burned alive, her Body then Reduced To Ashes And Cast to the Wind, her Belongings taken And Remanded to the King, the said accused having previously been subjected to torture in the ordinary And Extraordinary ways in order to have her Reveal her Accomplices…" .

Part of her sentence included being tortured before being executed, as was the custom for crimes such as arson. This was called question préalable (torture prior to execution), and aimed at making the convict denounce any possible accomplices, as well as confess and ask forgiveness for her sins. She was beaten by the colony's executioner and "master of the means of torture", a Black slave named Mathieu Leveille, and her legs were crushed by an instrument known as "the boot", which was only used on prisoners sentenced to death. After torture, she confessed to the crime, but claimed to have done it alone. Angélique was sentenced to be burnt alive and to have her hand cut off, but the Superior Council in Quebec City altered her death sentence to hanging in a public ceremony. This involved her being driven through town tied in the back of a cart wearing a sign reading "arsonist"; the drive included a stop at the church where she was made to kneel and beg for forgiveness from God, the King of France, and her fellow subjects (a process known as "amende honorable"). She was hanged and once dead, her body was burned and her ashes scattered.

Legacy of Marie-Joseph Angélique

It is sometimes claimed that Angélique and other domestic slaves had a much easier life than slaves employed elsewhere in plantation labour, which is seen as evidence that slavery was less harsh in Canada.

Angélique was sentenced to have her hand cut off and to be burnt alive, but the Superior Council in Quebec City reduced her sentence to hanging. However, it is sometimes said that Angélique was burnt alive with her hands cut off, as it seems that is the way the story reached Haiti.

By today's standards, the prosecution at her trial did not meet their burden of proof, and so modern historians do not know if she was guilty. While it is impossible to know for sure, many contemporary Black authors believe that Angélique did start the 1734 fire, as a justified rebellion against her owner. Having tried twice to run away, she was clearly not willing to calmly accept her slavery, and instead fought against it fiercely with her words and her actions her entire recorded life. Her struggle, the first known rebellion of a slave in Canada, has inspired several plays, novels, and folk songs about her bravery. One, the play Angélique by Lorena Gale, won the 1995 du Maurier National Playwriting Competition.

The transcript of Angélique's lengthy and detailed trial affords a rare insight into the daily life of a slave of her day, and predates any known autobiographical slave narratives from the New World.

See also

• Black Canadian
• Slavery in Canada
• History of Quebec

References

• The Hanging of Angelique by Afua Cooper (2006) Harper Collins Canada ISBN 0002005530
• Special exhibit at the Centre d'histoire de Montréal[1] (Center for Montreal History), 2006-2007
• Beaugrand-Champagne, Denyse (2004). Le procès de Marie-Josèphe Angélique. Montreal: Libre Expression. ISBN 2-7648-0156-4.
• Kolish, Evelyn (2007). "L'incendie de Montréal en 1734 et le procès de Marie-Josèphe Angélique: Trois oeuvres, deux interprétations", Revue d'histoire de l'Amérique française. Vol. 61, No 1, (summer 2007), pp. 86-92.
• Lachance, André (1978). La Justice criminelle du roi au Canada au XVIIIe siècle Québec. Quebec: Les Presses de l’Université Laval, ISBN 0-7746-6821-0.

External links

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• Torture and Truth - Angélique and the Burning of Montreal - Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History