Afua Cooper Delves Into Untold African Canadian History

Afua Cooper Delves Into Untold African Canadian History

By Ryan B. Patrick
Pride Entertainment Writer
March 8, 2006

Afua Cooper’s latest book, The Hanging of Angélique, puts the spotlight on a chapter of African Canadian history some would like to believe never existed.
Cooper was on hand during a standing-room-only event at Toronto’s Gladstone Hotel, recently, where she engaged in a lively conversation, about the untold and overlooked history of slavery in Canada, while onstage with poet/playwright George Elliot Clarke.
Most Canadians hold on the belief that slavery never existed in this country, but the history reveals otherwise, says Cooper.
Canadians have cultivated for themselves a belief that Canadians are good and moral people, Cooper offers, therefore, slavery didn’t exist here.
Yet it did.
The history of Black people in Canada goes deeper than the Underground Railroad, she adds.
Cooper recalls a few accounts where she’s been challenged on the existence of Canadian slavery; it is only after the facts are shown that people are forced to concede.
“It’s really hard for some people to accept that we had slavery in this country,” she says.
The Jamaican-born Cooper is a celebrated professor, poet and historian, and holds a PhD in African Canadian history – with specialties in slavery and abolition – and currently teaches history at the University of Toronto.
Her book, The Hanging Of Angélique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montreal (HarperCollins) is an engrossing and factual account of Canadian history.
Cooper spent 15 years researching the captivating account of Marie-Joseph Angélique, a Portugal-born Black slave in New France (now Quebec). The book notes Angélique was likely born a free woman, but was kidnapped and forced into slavery.
Unlike American plantation-style slavery, the Canadian system of slavery meant that Black people were often treated as house slaves or domestics.
But it was no less evil, Cooper notes, despite the fact Canadian slavery is often referred to as “benevolent” slavery.
“Here’s this story that flies in the face of that belief,” Cooper says. Africans were whipped and brutalized in the Great White North.
Cooper adds, the documents are here, but historians chose to ignore them.
The Hanging Of Angélique exposes and condemns the slave trade of New France, the New World and Europe.
The book carefully fuses scholarly research and rich prose, with detailed analysis of this unique slave account. Cooper also provides a wealth of detail, so much so, it’s almost easy to become overwhelmed by the subject matter. Central to the book is Angélique’s dramatic act of resistance, when, on April 11, 1734, after learning she was going to be sold, she allegedly set fire to her White master’s house in order to cover her escape.
“I don’t know if Angélique set the fire, but I believe she did,” says Cooper.
The fire engulfed and destroyed 46 buildings, in what is now known as old Montreal. The French wanted to make an example of Angélique, finding her guilty on circumstantial evidence, and sentencing her to death.
In June of 1734, Angélique was captured, tortured, paraded through the streets, then hanged and her body burned. Angélique’s heartbreaking tale serves as a potent and compelling symbol of Black freedom in Canada.
“She was a Black woman who felt alienated from the community. She was an oppressed woman…battling the system, trying to bring about her freedom,” Cooper says.
“The response to the book has been tremendous,” Cooper adds, noting that the most common question asked is: “How come this history isn’t widely known?”
“The book is appealing to people’s humanity,” she says, adding, the purpose of the book is not only to show that Canadian slavery existed, but to open up meaningful dialogue.
“This conversation has to happen,” Cooper concludes. “We have to move beyond the Underground Railroad; we have to move before the Underground Railroad, and we have to move into the future.”