Ordinance by intendant Raudot on the subject of slavery in Canada, 13 April 1709.
Ordinance passed on the subject of negroes and the savages called Panis.
Read and published at the church
in the lower city following
the mass at 7 in the morning
and at the door of the
parish church of this
city of quebec following the
high mass on the 21st
of April 1709 by me
court bailiff
At the provostship of quebec
and residing in this city on Ruë Saint-
Pierre signed Cugnet.
Having good Knowledge of how this Colony would benefit if it were possible for the inhabitants to purchase Savages known as panis, whose nation is Distant from this country, and whom we can only obtain through savages who will take them from their Homeland and most frequently sell them to the English of Carolina, and who have at times sold them to the people of this country, who at times are frustrated by the considerable sums that they must pay, owing to these savages being inspired with a sense of freedom by those who did not purchase them, which means that they most always abandon their masters, and this under the pretext that there are no slaves in France, which is not necessarily the truth, considering the Colonies that rely on them, considering that in the Islands of this continent all negroes that the inhabitants purchase are
We, for the great pleasure of his Majesty, ordain that all Panis and Negroes
who have Been purchased or who will be purchased at some time, will belong
to Those who have purchased them as their full property and Be known as their
Slaves; we prohibit the said Panis and Negroes from abandoning their masters
And whomsoever from corrupting them, under penalty of a 50 livres fine. We
ordain that the present ordinance be read and published in the customary Locations
in the cities of Québec, trois Rivières and Montréal, and that it be Registered
at the local provostship, under the diligence of our sub-delegates, Done at
our hotel in Quebec the 13 of April 1709.
[signé]Raudot