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32.More information
In 1703, the “panis” slave François made a legally binding will with his master as beneficiary. He bequeathed him all his belongings “so that he may remember him and in recognition of the troubles he took in raising and instructing him in the Catholic Religion.” From this document, extremely rare in the annals of slavery, and a multitude of other manuscripts, one can “trace the tiny life” of this forgotten figure in the archives and thus, from these scattered traces, reconstruct the fate of an indigenous man who was enslaved, emancipated, and likely re-enslaved in Montreal during the French regime. This is to “recreate him, to offer him a second chance – and this time a better chance – to enter into the memory of his century,” as the historian Alain Corbin writes about Louis-François Pinagot, the unknown individual he has brought back to life.
Keywords: Nouvelle-France, Montréal, esclavage, émancipation, dettes, réesclavisation, panis, e-e siècles, Nouvelle-France, Montreal, slavery, emancipation, debts, re-enslavement, Panis, 17th-18th centuries
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