Canada's Forgotten Slaves ─ Two Centuries of Bondage

This groundbreaking history documents the roots of slavery in everyday colonial Canada and the extreme measures taken by subsequent generations to eradicate any record of their presence. Beginning with the French regime in colonial Canada 1629, noted historian Marcel Trudel examines the roots of slavery and its pervasive existence until its eventual abolition from the British Empire in 1834. Drawn from Trudel’s exhaustive scrutiny of unpublished 17th- through 19th-century archival records, this survey gives a human face to more than 4,000 aboriginal and black slaves who were bought, sold, and exploited in colonial Canada. The compelling narrative chronicles the slaves’ often horrific living conditions, the joys and sorrows of their daily existence, and their quest to gain liberty. The extensive research not only reveals the identities of Canadian slave owners, but sheds light on the whitewashing undertaken by politicians, historians, and ecclesiastics who deliberately falsified records and glorified their colonial-era heroes in order to remove any trace of these slaves held in bondage for more than 200 years.

Marcel Trudel was an author, an editor, and a historian. He taught at Laval University and the University of Ottawa and was a head of the department of history at Laval University. He was the author of The Beginnings of New France 1524–1663, Introduction to New France, and Memoirs of a Less Travelled Road: A Historian’s Life and a coeditor of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography. During his lifetime he received numerous honors, including the Governor-General’s Award for nonfiction, the MacDonald Prize, the Molson Prize, and the Prix David. George Tombs is an author, a filmmaker, an award-winning journalist, and a translator. He is the author of Robber Baron. He lives in Montreal, Quebec.