Marie-Joseph Angélique: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

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

Owned by Thérèse de Couagne and 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 with a slave named César, who was owned by d'Ignace Gamelin.

On April 10, 1734, after Madame de Couagne had threatened to sell her, Marie-Joseph set fire to her owner's home and tried to escape. She was captured shortly after, but not before the fire she started devastated much of Montreal, approximately 40 buildings; no one was reported to have died in the fire.

Tried and tortured, Angelique confessed to the crime and was sentenced to death by being burned alive. However, the sentence was reduced, and instead, she was hanged in a public ceremony that involved her being driven through town tied in the back of cart wearing a sign reading arsonist which included a stop at the church where she was made to kneel and beg for forgiveness from the King, God, and her fellow citizens. 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. Her death stands today as a harsh condemnation of the excesses of slavery, even when relatively benign, as the French institution has claimed to be.

"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

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 will be published by HarperCollins in the fall of 2004.

• The site of the fire and the spot of her death are reputed to be haunted.