This is a very scholarly, detail study of slavery in early Canada with special emphasis on French Canada. Apparently Quebec historians have felt that slavery was a British thing that occurred after the conquest in 1763. However, Trudel shows in great detail how French merchants, clergy, and fur traders owned slaves long before the English appeared on the scene.

In the early time period, the slaves were mainly Natives who were brought back from the area west of the Mississippi for they would find it difficult to flee for home. Later Blacks were brought in from New England and the Caribbean colonies although in small numbers. Using church and civil records, Trudel debunks the myth that the French did not own slaves. He paid a high personal price for making this point having to leave Quebec and teach in Ontario at the University of Ottawa. ( )