Afua Cooper: The Hanging of Angélique - The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montreal

The LLDRL speaker series and McGill Seminar on Slavery and the Law present an Author-meets-Readers session with Professor Afua Cooper.

Please note that this conference takes place inside Professor Adelle Blackett's Slavery and the Law course (LAWG 517).

In her book The Hanging of Angélique, Professor Afua Cooper tell the astonishing story of Marie-Joseph Angélique, a slave woman convicted of starting a fire that destroyed a large part of Montréal in April 1734 and condemned to die a brutal death. In a powerful retelling of Angélique’s story, Cooper builds on 15 years of research to shed new light on a rebellious Portuguese-born black woman who refused to accept her indentured servitude. At the same time, Cooper completely demolishes the myth of a benign, slave-free Canada, revealing a damning 200-year-old record of legally and culturally endorsed slavery.

About the author

A scholar, historian, poet, and social and cultural commentator, Dr. Afua Cooper holds a Ph.D. in Black Canadian Studies and the African Diaspora from the University of Toronto. She is Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Dalhousie University, and she holds the James Robinson Johnston Chair in Black Canadian Studies. Afua Cooper’s expertise in and contributions to the arts, history, and education were recognized when she was presented with the Nova Scotia Human Rights Award from the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission in 2015. Dr. Cooper also founded the Black Canadian Studies Association (BCSA), which she currently chairs.

Professor Cooper’s visit is sponsored by the Labour Law and Development Research Laboratory.