A Brief History
On June 21, 1734, a 29 year old African woman was executed for setting her slave master’s house on fire which spread through Montreal in New France, what is now Canada.
Digging Deeper
Born a slave in Madeira around 1705 and named Marie-Joseph Angélique by a Flemish man that bought her and sold her to a Frenchman in Montreal around 1725, Marie was not submissive and tried to escape with a White indentured servant she had taken as a lover in 1733.
The White servant was jailed, and Marie was returned to domestic duties, although her sale was arranged for 600 pounds of gunpowder. Visited by her lover who had been released from jail, Marie set the fire as cover for another escape attempt, which spread to burn down 45 houses.
Marie was convicted and sentenced to be burned to death, later amended to being hanged after being tortured by “the boot,” during which she confessed but denied her lover’s involvement.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Cabay, Marcel. Marie-Joseph Angélique, incendiaire. Editions Héritage,, 1983.
Hunter, Andrew. It Was Dark There All the Time: Sophia Burthen and the Legacy of Slavery in Canada. Goose Lane Editions, 2022.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by Coastal Elite from Halifax, Canada, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
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