Marie-Joseph Angélique

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Marie-Joseph Angélique (commonly known as Angélique; died June 21, 1734) was the name given by the French authorities to a Portuguese-born black slave in New France (later the Province of Quebec in Canada). She was tried and convicted of setting fire to her owner's home, burning much of what is now referred to as old Montreal.

Owned by Thérèse de Couagne and (until his death in 1733) de Couagne's husband François Poulin de Francheville, Marie-Joseph was expected to fill her role as a slave by breeding with other slaves and servicing her master. She, however, was adamantly opposed to this and devoted to her alleged lover, a white servant named Claude Thibault. It is also alleged that Marie-Joseph had three children, at least one of whom was fathered by a slave named César, who was owned by Ignace Gamelin.

On April 10, 1734, after Madame de Couagne had threatened to sell her, Marie-Joseph was said to have set fire to her owner's home and tried to escape. She was immediately arrested, but not before the fire devastated much of Montreal, approximately forty buildings; no one was reported to have died in the fire.

She told the authorities she had not started the fire but was charged and tried, without confessing to the deed. Part of her testimony, taken from the court records by author Afua Cooper for her 2006 book The Hanging of Angelique, revealed she had been repeatedly beaten by her mistress over the years. Convicted of the crime, part of her sentence included being tortured before being executed, as was the custom for such heinous crimes as arson; this was called question préalable (torture prior to execution), and aimed at making the convict denounce any possible accomplices. According to Cooper's book, she was brutally beaten and her legs crushed (a common, standard, torture known as "the boot"), after which she confessed to the crime. Her death sentence was altered, and instead of being burned alive she was hanged in a public ceremony that involved her being driven through town tied in the back of a cart wearing a sign reading "arsonist" which included a stop at the church where she was made to kneel and beg for forgiveness from God, the King of France, and her fellow subjects (a process known as "amende honorable"). Before the execution, she was made to suffer the amputation of the hand with which she set the fire. Once dead, her body was burned and her ashes scattered. (all of this was standard procedure for such crimes at the time).

"MARIE-JOSEPH ANGELIQUE, negress, slave woman of Thérèse de Couagne, widow of the late François Poulin de Francheville, you are condemned to die, to make honourable amends, to have your hand cut off, be burned alive, and your ashes cast to the winds." — Judge Pierre Raimbault, June 4, 1734.

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[edit] Arts, literature, & folklore

The play titled Angélique was written by Lorena Gale and was the winner of the 1995 duMaurier National Playwriting Competition
The Hanging of Angelique by Afua Cooper (2006) Harper Collins Canada ISBN 0002005530
The site of the fire and the spot of her death are reputed to be haunted.