The Hanging of Angelique

THE HANGING OF ANGELIQUE:
THE OLDEST SLAVE NARRATIVE IN THE NEW WORLD
(As seen in October 2005 issue of Essence Magazine)

Afua Cooper is an established writer of non-fiction, history, and poetry. She holds a Ph.D. in African-Canadian history with specialties in Slavery and Abolition. She also has expertise in Womens History and New France studies. She has contributed to several publications on the history of the African Diaspora in Canada and the Caribbean and is currently Professor of Black History and Women's Studies at the University of Toronto. Mrs. Cooper is also a recent winner of the Harry Jerome Award for Professional Excellence. For fifteen years, Mrs. Cooper has been researching the intriguing history of Marie-Joseph Angelique.

The Hanging of Angelique flips the script on the idea of Canada as a haven from slavery, yet this is also a story with international appeal. Angelique was Portuguese, and she had lived in what is now the United States. Her story resonates across time and space, back and forth across the Atlantic, traversing borders, language, race, and nations. Cooper's original research has assembled not only the first account of this story ever published in English, but also the first English-language histories of slavery in Canada and of the Atlantic Slave Trade that includes Canada.