This will come as a surprise to most First Nations, given that many of them:
1) practiced slavery;
2) slaughtered those men who defied them;
3) took the women as their own; and
4) raised captive children as their own, even forcing their own religion and behavioral norms upon them.
Mind you, so did the Catholic church.
Around 3,000 enslaved men, women and children of African descent were brought into British North America. By the 1790s, the number of enslaved Black people in the
Maritimes (
New Brunswick,
Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island) ranged from 1,200 to 2,000. There were about 300 in
Lower Canada (
Québec), and between 500 and 700 in
Upper Canada (
Ontario).
To a tremendous extent, the enslavement of
Indigenous peoples defines slavery in Canada. Fully two-thirds of the slaves in the colony of
New France were Indigenous. After 1750, the number of Indigenous slaves brought into French Canada began to decline. When slavery was abolished in British colonies in 1834, Black slaves far outnumbered Indigenous slaves. (
See also Black Enslavement in Canada.)
Prior to European contact, it was common in some
Indigenous communities to enslave those captured in war. In general, most Indigenous peoples primarily distinguished between those who were kin and those who were outsiders — either trade allies or enemies who were legitimate captives in warfare. Indigenous peoples enslaved those they captured in war for a number of reasons.
Indigenous enslavement was central to the survival of England’s southern colonies; all relied almost entirely on Indigenous slaves initially, for personal service and to break the land for plantations. African slaves were less popular during this time because they were more expensive. It was cheaper to buy (or ultimately, to capture) Indigenous people.
When the supply of Indigenous slaves from South Carolina dried up following the Yamasee War, the French-Canadian colony obtained the slaves it needed from fur traders who brought Indigenous slaves from the western region of the continent. Some historians identified the primary slaves in Canada as the Pawnees, for whom the generic name Panis began to be used for most Indigenous slaves. Ultimately, slaves were obtained from all over the western territories where New France traded.
Small numbers of Indigenous and even fewer Black slaves were held in most regions of
New France outside of the French Canadian colony (the exception being Louisiana, where the dominance of a plantation economy meant that thousands of Black slaves and some Indigenous slaves were also held). In Canada, the ratio of Indigenous to Black slaves was 2:1. The French colonists there received permission from Louis XIV to import African slaves in 1689. However, since New France relied on Indigenous allies for survival, the king was reluctant to rule on the legality of Indigenous enslavement.
After repeatedly petitioning the king for clarification,
Intendant Jacques Raudot passed a colonial law in 1709 —
Ordinance Rendered on the Subject of the Negroes and the Indians called Panis— that legitimized slavery in New France. The ordinance stipulated that both Indigenous and Black slaves brought to the colony would be considered the possession of those who purchased them.
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Lots more if you like - Haida slavers, Iroquois slavers, Muslim slavers, Irish slavers, Chinese slavers, Cherokee, Choctaw and Seminole slavers, Black, Roman and Greek slavers.
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One thing that my eye has been drawn to is the relationship between money and slavery.
In a society lacking in money slavery is pretty much a given. If you have gold you can buy food, shelter and people to work for you. If you lack gold, and foraging isn't an option, then your only alternative is to contract yourself to somebody that can supply those needs. Those contracts, in the absence of money, were open ended and depended on you keeping the contract holder happy. If you kept the old geezer happy then you might get lucky and receive your manumission. In the modern era this is defined as earning social credit.
Lord, Abbot, Bey or Commissar - they hold your future in their hands. You serve at their pleasure and on their terms. Medical care for whippings are at your expense.
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Indenture contracts were an improvement. They were time limited. Their terms were controlled and they could be contested in independent courts. And, when money was transferred from the contractor to the servant then the servant could accumulate wealth, or capital, and buy out their contract on their terms.
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Capitalism, the concept of everybody having access to a means of earning and storing wealth, put an end to slavery. With wealth, money, you could choose who and when you put yourself at the service of another and under what terms.
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There is no coincidence in the rise of the capital banking system and the eventual demise of slavery. Steam engines and mobile wealth reduced the utility of slaves. The Arabs were among the last to grasp that concept, holding out until the 1980s.
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Last slave state - Mauretania, 1981.
en.wikipedia.org
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Short form. No apologies from me, or mine, or my kin. Now. Or ever.
www.tfcg.ca
