Читать книгу Benjamin Drew. The Refugee. Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada онлайн
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Angélique’s story is as astonishing as fascinating and it accounts for the reality that Black slaves had to endure under New France slavery2. Marie-Joseph Angélique was born around 1705 in Madeira, Portugal. It is possible that she was the first enslaved person in Portugal and a primeval subject under the lucrative transactions of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Angélique was later sold to a Flemish merchant named Nichus Block when she was in her early teens. Block brought Angélique to the New World. There, she lived in New England for one year before being sold in 1725, at the age of 20 to a French businessman from Montréal named Francois Poulin de Francheville. Francheville brought Angélique back to his home town in Montréal to work as a domestic slave. When Francheville died in November of 1733, ownership of Angélique passed down to a Francheville widow. On February 22, 1734, while her mistress was away handling business on her late husband estate, Angélique and her lover Thibault attempted to escape enslavement, but due to bad weather and the frozen river they never made it far, and were finally captured by six militias nearby Chambly.