Marie (died 1759) was an enslaved Cree person who was sentenced to death in

Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières (, – 'Three Rivers') is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice River, Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence River, Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Sain ...

New France New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spai ...

. Little is known of her before August 1759. She is described as (a French Canadian term used to describe any enslaved

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

person) and she was probably born in a Cree village. Marie was enslaved by military officer

Joseph Boucher de Niverville Joseph Boucher de Niverville (September 22, 1715 – August 30, 1804) was an army and militia officer in New France (under the rule of the Kingdom of France) and the Province of Quebec (under the rule of Great Britain) of present-day Canada. He w ...

and forced to serve his family in Trois-Rivières. On 20 August 1759 there was a dispute between Marie and Boucher de Niverville's wife, Marie-Josephte Chastelain, and his mother, Marguerite. Marie apparently took a kitchen knife she had been sharpening and struck the two women with it, slightly wounding both of them. Marie fled to the attic where she attempted to hang herself, but she was discovered by Nicolas-Joseph de Noyelles. Marie recovered, despite a treatment of

bloodletting Bloodletting (or blood-letting) is the withdrawal of blood from a patient to prevent or cure illness and disease. Bloodletting, whether by a physician or by leeches, was based on an ancient system of medicine in which blood and other bodily flu ...

by a surgeon. Marie was charged with violence against the two women and with attempting suicide, a

capital offense Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

. As Marie apparently spoke little or no French, she was provided with two interpreters, Joseph Chevalier (an armourer) and another named only as Saint-Jean. It's likely that both spoke Ottawa dialect rather than Marie's

Cree language Cree (also known as Cree– Montagnais–Naskapi) is a dialect continuum of Algonquian languages spoken by approximately 117,000 people across Canada, from the Northwest Territories to Alberta to Labrador. If considered one language, it is th ...

. Marie claimed that she had meant to scare, but not hurt, the women, but on 11 September she was found guilty "of having inflicted knife wounds mentioned in the procedure and then of having hanged herself" and condemned to be "beaten and flogged naked with rods by the executioner of at the crossroads," branded, banished, and fined three . The sentence was appealed by crown attorney

Joseph-Marie Godefroy de Tonnancour Joseph-Marie Godefroy de Tonnancour (August 15, 1750 – November 22, 1834) was a seigneur and political figure in Lower Canada. He was born in Trois-Rivières in 1750, the son of Louis-Joseph Godefroy de Tonnancour. He was educated at th ...

who considered it too lenient. The colony's in

Montréal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-p ...

agreed, and, on 29 December 1759 they ordered "the said Marie, Indian, to be hanged and strangled until death do ensue on a gallows erected for that purpose in the marketplace of this town... ndher dead body be exposed for two hours."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marie Date of birth unknown 18th-century births 1759 deaths Canadian slaves 18th-century slaves 18th-century Canadian women Cree people First Nations women Pre-Confederation Quebec people People of New France People executed by France by hanging People executed by the Ancien Régime in France Executed women 18th-century executions by France