Book Review: The Hanging of Angélique by Afua Cooper

In 1734, Montréal burned. A slave woman, Marie-Joseph Angélique, was blamed for the fire. Born in Portugal, bought and sold into the United States, then to New France, where she was baptized anew and given her new name, she was said to have put hot embers in the roof of her mistress's house to seek revenge for having been sold yet again. After a two-month trial she was found guilty and sentenced to have her hand cut off before she was burned alive.

This is the story at the core of Afua Cooper's The Hanging of Angélique. With this book, Cooper seems to have two main goals. First, she seeks to shed light on Canadian slavery, a neglected area of the country's history. Second, she wants to raise awareness of Marie-Joseph Angélique, as an individual, but more importantly as a symbol of the struggle of Canadian slaves, a reminder of their lives and the small, but revolutionary, acts of rebellion that were available to them.

Cooper's book is replete with undiscussed Canadian history. Canadians are famous for reducing their definitions of themselves down to two words: Not Americans. We measure ourselves against our neighbours to the south and, generally, decide that we do more of the things they ought to be doing and fewer of the things that they shouldn't. We're not Americans; we're something similar, but better. Like homemade mac & cheese versus the boxed stuff.

The mythology of each country's independence highlights the differences. Canada had lengthy negotiations with Great Britain, outlining the pragmatic reasons for giving the country its independence; not a drop of blood was spilled. Americans, meanwhile, had a big war. Canada came into its own quietly; the United States, loudly, leaving its pacifists, loyalists (talk about a loaded term!) and oppressed peoples to find freedom here. The story of the Underground Railroad is a proud moment in Canadian history, as slaves from the south found freedom on Canadian soil. We've even made a patriotic commercial about it.

What a surprise it must have been for these freed slaves to discover that though they were free, Canada still had slavery. What a surprise it was to me, to read that. These are the kinds of historical omissions that Cooper seeks to repair. To many Canadians, it might come as a surprise that the country had slaves ever, at all. Yet, that was the case. The French and the British brought slaves with them when they came to Canada, and they purchased additional slaves to meet their needs long after they were settled here. The same legislation that freed American slaves who made it across the Canadian border permitted the continued servitude of those who were already in Canada. Even in Canada, abolition was controversial, and it took time.

Article Author: Bonnie

Bonnie writes about books every Thursday at Fourth-Rate Reader, about everything else at Signifying Nothing, and sometimes she resorts to pictures. She lives in Toronto.

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