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Public Reading & Discussion
Sex, Power and Slavery:The Dynamics of Carnal Relations under Enslavement
Montreal, 19-21 April 2007
Indian Ocean World Centre, McGill University
Angélique: Rebel or Victim?
April 19, 2007 from 6 to 7:30 PM
Leacock Building - Room 232
Panel Discussion with Denyse Beaugrand-Champagne and Afua Cooper
Hosted by Marianne Ackerman
Governor-General’s Literary Award nominee Afua Cooper and Quebec historian and archivist Denyse Beaugrand-Champagne square off in a lively debate about the innocence or guilt of a Montreal slave who was hanged for torching a large part of the city in 1734.
Contrary to our image of colonial history, when Montreal was the fur trading capital of New France, slave owing was quite common. In the spring of 1734, Portuguese-born Marie-Joseph Angélique, a black woman owned by a rich merchant’s widow, was accused of setting her owner’s house on fire. Refusing to admit to her crime, Angélique was condemned to undergo brutal torture, in an effort to convince her to name a white man, her sometime lover Claude Thibeault. She confessed to the crime but refused to denounce Thibeault. She was hanged, her body burnt and the ashes scattered.
For more than 200 years, Angélique’s story existed as a footnote in Canadian history. Recently, ground-breaking research has resurrected fresh evidence surrounding her case and created a compelling portrait of the context in which she lived and died. Propelled by the mystery of Angélique, two leading scholars have uncovered the hidden world of slavery in early Canada.
In 2004, Quebec historian and archivist Denyse Beaugrand-Champagne’s Le Procès de Marie-Josèphe-Angélique launched an avalanche of discussion in Quebec about the presence of slavery in New France. Published in 2006, University of Toronto professor Afua Cooper’s The Hanging of Angélique was widely reviewed in English Canada and nominated for a Governor General’s Award. A French translation has just been published by Les Editions de l’Homme.
Although working with many of the same sources, Beaugrand-Champagne and Cooper have arrived at quite different conclusions. The Quebec historian believes Angélique was innocent and used as a scapegoat. Cooper sees her action as a rational act of rebellion, signaling the oppression of thousands of slaves owned by Montreal’s bourgeoisie and merchant class in the 18th Century.
This panel promises a lively debate. Montreal writer Marianne Ackerman will moderate the event, which takes place on Thursday, April 19, in Room 232 of the Leacock Building, McGill University, from 6 pm until 7:30 pm. A reception will follow.
Media inquiries
Christopher DiRaddo (514) 842-5087 or (514) 806-5087, diraddo@videotron.ca
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Meet Lawrence Hill, author of The Book of Negroes
A reading from his acclaimed novel, published this spring
The McCord Museum – Friday April 20, 6 pm
Lawrence Hill’s new novel, The Book of Negroes, is a sweeping story that transports the reader from an African village to a plantation in the southern U.S., from the Halifax docks to the manor houses of London. This novel examines the history of British slavery and liberation in the U.S., Canada, England and West Africa through one remarkable woman’s tale of survival and migration.
Hill is the son of a black father and a white mother who came to Canada hoping to escape the enduring racism of their native United States. Formerly a reporter with The Globe and Mail and parliamentary correspondent for The Winnipeg Free Press, he has lived and worked across Canada, in Baltimore, and in Spain and France. As a volunteer with Canadian Crossroads International, he has traveled to the West African countries Niger, Cameroon and Mali. He has a B.A. in economics from Laval University in Quebec City and an M.A. in writing from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Critical response to The Book of Negroes:
The Book of Negroes is a masterpiece, daring and impressive in its geographic, historical and human reach, convincing in its narrative art and detail, necessary for imagining the real beyond the traces left by history.
– The Globe and Mail
Aminata is a heroic figure, a little larger than life, residing within and outside of history. You can never forget this character. She embeds herself in your heart.
– The Toronto Star
Anna Karenina. Hagar Shipley. Aminata Diallo....the exclusive club that includes literature's most memorable characters now has a remarkable new member.
– The Calgary Herald
In Aminata Diallo, who evolves from stolen village child to the conscience of abolition, writer Lawrence Hill has crafted one of the most memorable female characters in Canadian fiction.... And here's how readers will come to know this — Aminata tends to linger long after the book's been finished and put aside....The Book of Negroes is thoughtful, stirring, saddening, resplendent and joyful. It's an evocative tome, and among the best in our fiction.
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Exhibitions
Representations of the
Black Community of Quebec: 1780s-1920s
Images from the McCord Museum Collection
Friday April 20th, 2007; 18.30 McCord Theatre
Until recently, the Black community of Quebec has received little attention by scholars. Their history reflects the changes occurring in Canadian society as a whole and within Quebec, a struggle against anonymity and the racial stereotypes of the day. This slideshow explores the different ways Blacks have been represented through paintings and photographs from the late eighteenth century to the early twentieth century. All images are from the McCord Museum collection.
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Film
Broken Birds
A hauntingly beautiful fusion of docu-drama and music theatre, Broken Birds tells the story of young Japanese sex slaves broken by the harsh lives they were forced to lead in foreign lands.
A century ago, Japan had only two major exports - coal and women. According to historian James Francis Warren’s book, Ah KU and Karayuki-san, young women were abducted and lured by promises of wealth, taken to Singapore. Despite the traumatic lives many of them led, the Karayuki-san (or women who went South) were incredible patriots who sent back several million yen to Japan to pump up its economy. Brothel owners used the idea of national good to enslave them. The women were told that their bodies belonged to the state and that they constituted a form of female army.
Staged outdoors, this operatic production has a cast of 24, mixing dance, drama and music. The action unfolds through evocative one-line statements obtained from actual oral accounts and coroners’ reports; many of the women and girls died from death by misadventure, homicide or suicide. A play about voices, Broken Birds bridges the gap between history and the performing arts.
The film version of a spectacular stage play presented in Fort Canning Park, Singapore by Theatrewords Singapore, Broken Birds was conceived and directed by Ong Keng Sen. Music: John Sharpley Text: Robin Loon and Ong Keng Sen. Movement/Choreography: Lim Fei Shoon.
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