A Canadian Slavery Story

The story of Marie-Joseph Angélique and her resistance against slavery in Montreal.

Special thanks to the Centre d'histoire de Montréal for permitting us to film on location. If you are interested in Montréal's history, you should absolutely check out the museum—you'll see the model we feature in the episode on display.

* Correction: Mathieu Léveillé's name is mispronounced in the video. We sincerely apologize for the error, which was the result of a missing accent on the second 'e' in our shooting script.

* Note: The Nôtre-Dame Basilica in Montréal today is a reincarnation of the building that Angélique was brought to in 1734. The ruins of the original building are buried beneath the Place d'Armes, right in front of the modern cathedral's entrance. Construction of the current building was completed in 1829.

* Disclaimer: Since there is no record of archival imagery for any of the subjects in this story, the character designs are entirely fictional for the purpose of illustration only (created using a blend of faces from historic photography archives).

Mathieu Léveillé suffered constant illness and severe melancholy as the executioner in New France from 1733 to 1743. He hated the job he was forced to do. He'd spent the first twenty-four years of his life in the Caribbean and had a difficult time adjusting to the change in climate—he was hospitalized at Quebec City's Hôtel-Dieu (the oldest hospital north of Mexico) almost immediately upon his arrival in Québec and again on numerous occasions. Léveillé died of pneumonia on September 9, 1743.

In Canada, unlike the south, the majority of enslaved people were of Aboriginal origin. The term "Panis" in its strictest sense actually referred to the Pawnees, a nation which inhabited the basin of the Missouri River and which was consistently targeted by the French. However, colonists soon began to use "esclave panis" as a generic term for any Aboriginal slave.

In 2012, a public square across from Montréal's city hall was named in honour of Marie-Josèphe-Angélique. However, the square was under construction when we went to film there in May 2017. A new unfinished public space named Place des Montréalaises was inaugurated in November 2017, and will be dedicated to Angélique among several other women.

"The square is named in honour of women who have marked Montréal history. Fortin mentioned Jeanne Mance, Marie-Joseph Angelique, Jessie Maxwell Smith, Ida Roth Steinberg and the 14 engineering students murdered at Polytechnique Montréal in 1989."

The Hôtel-Dieu burned and was rebuilt three times between 1695 and 1734. In 1861 it was moved from Old Montreal to its present location near Mount Royal.

One of the best sources we had on this story was an award-winning website: Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History. You can read the actual transcripts of the trial, look over maps and images, and try to unearth the truth for yourself in this horrific tale. We will never know for sure who set the fire, but we do know that Angélique was brutally punished for standing up for her own freedom one way or another. You can sort through it all here.

The torture scene is taken from a public domain film made in 1922 called Häxan. It's Swedish-Danish silent-film that borders between documentary and horror. It just so happened to have the perfect depiction of 'The Boot.'

A few tangents (look for more on a future blogpost):

- Marie-Josèphe-Angélique was not silent during her trial, she consistently maintained that she had not started the fire right up until she was brutally tortured. She yelled at Marie-Manon when she felt betrayed by her testimony, and she pleaded with the widow's niece not to incriminate her—fearing she was being forced to against her will.

- Claude Thibault's timeline changes slightly in accounts. He was either released on the day of the fire, or the day or two before. In one case, he was seen eating a sandwich at an inn. When he was told that the Merchant's Quarter was on fire and Angélique the main suspect—he fled. Was he part of a another escape plan?

French subtitles by: Marika Lapointe