Ordonnance Concernant l'Esclavage Au Canada

Dublin Core

Title

Ordonnance Concernant l'Esclavage Au Canada

Description

This document represents a significant turning point in the history of Canadian slavery. Issued by Intendant Jacques Raudot, a high-ranking royal official in New France, in 1709, this ordinance officially recognized the right of colonists to own enslaved Indigenous and Black people, in addition to outlining their rights as slave owners. Although enslavement was already commonplace in the colony before this date, the ordinance gave this practice its first legal foundation on a local scale and helped normalize it further within colonial Canadian society.

The cover itself is simple, but it shows that Canadian slavery was neither informal nor accidental, as it was explicitly supported by law.

Creator

Jacques Raudot

Source

“Ordonnance concernant l’esclavage au Canada.” 1709. Encyclopedie du Centre des Memoires Montrealaises. https://ville.montreal.qc.ca/memoiresdesmontrealais/files/ordonnance-1709

Publisher

Encyclopedie du Centre des Memoires Montrealaises

Date

13 April 1709

Rights

Public Domain

Type

Legal Document

Files

Raudot's Ordinance (1709).jpg

Citation

Jacques Raudot, “Ordonnance Concernant l'Esclavage Au Canada,” Black Canadian History Exhibit, accessed December 5, 2025, http://omeka.uottawa.ca/mathieu-black-canadian-history-exhibit/items/show/47.