Note 2 — NOTES ON THE SLAVE IN NOUVELLE-FRANCE

F. X. Garneau, Histoire du Canada, 1st Ed., Vol. II, p. 447. Andrew Bell, History of Canada, Montreal, 1862 (translated from Garneau's work). Vol. I, p. 440, treats the statement of Garneau somewhat slightingly. His translation reads: "In 1689, it was proposed to introduce Negroes to the colony. The French ministry thought the climate unsuitable for such an immigration and the project was given up. Thus did Canada happily escape the terrible curse of Negro Slavery." Bell's note, pp. 440, 441, shows that he understood what the facts actually were.

The translation of the two passages follows:

"We think we should mention here a determination which is honorable to the French Government. It is the resolve not to encourage the introduction of slaves into Canada, the colony which Louis XIV preferred to all the others by reason of the warlike character of its inhabitants—the colony which he wished to make in the image of France, to fill with a brave noblesse and a population truly national, Catholic, French, without an admixture of foreign races. In 1688, it was proposed to have Negroes there as farm laborers: the minister replied that he feared that they would die there by the change of climate, and that the project would be futile. That, so to speak, destroyed forever an enterprise which would have struck our society with a great, and terrible plague. It is true that in the succeeding century, the Code Noir of the Antilles was extended into Louisiana, it is true that there were ordinances as to slavery there; but, nevertheless, slavery did not prevail in Canada. There were scarcely any slaves at the time of the conquest. That event increased the number of them a little; they later disappeared entirely."

"That was sufficient to wreck a scheme which would have engrafted in our society that great and terrible plague which paralyzes the energies of so considerable a part of the American Union, slavery, that plague unknown under our northern sky."

It will be seen that Garneau does not say or suggest that slavery was entirely unknown in French Canada, but only that it did not "reign" (ne régnait point), i.e., was not prevalent; that while there were a few sporadic cases, the disease was not endemic, and it did not become a plague.

For the proposal of 1688-9, see my The Slave in Canada, pp. 1, 2 and notes (Journal of Negro History, Vol. V, No. 3, July 1920, and published separately by The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History Washington, 1920).