Marie-Josèphe-Angélique

In the aftermath of the fire that broke out in the city of Montréal on April 10, 1734, the whole of the population pointed the finger at Marie-Josèphe, known as Angélique, a Black slave owned by Thérèse de Couagne, widow of François Poulin de Francheville.

During her trial, Marie-Josèphe-Angélique stated that she was born in Portugal in 1705. Once the slave of “Niclus Bleck” – no doubt Nicolas Bleeker, a merchant from Fort Orange, in Albany, New York State – she has spent a few years in the British colonies of North America before being sold to the Franchevilles. Her new masters had her christened with the name of Marie-Josèphe and nicknamed her Angélique.

Angélique had three children who all died at an early age. The father was another Black slave, Jacques-César, owned by the merchant Ignace Gamelin who lived not far from the Franchevilles. Later, she took up with a lover, Claude Thibault, a salt trafficker exiled in New France, and with whom she attempted to escape in February 1734.