ABSTRACT
In recent years historians of slavery have placed renewed emphasis on the ways that historical documents created by and for slaveholders distort the lived experiences of enslaved people. Surviving records silence the voices of the enslaved and conceal the meaningful lives and communities they built despite slavery’s violence. This chapter explores these themes using a 1750 court case from Montreal in which an enslaved Native American woman known as Manon stood trial for stealing some of her master’s silver. It evaluates more than 100 pages of witness testimony, including statements by Manon herself, to evaluate what we can and cannot know about the lives of enslaved people in New France. Instances like these “contain the truth” in a variety of ways, allowing us to hear not only what enslaved people said about their own lives but also what the enslaved heard others say to and about them. Placing Indian slavery alongside African slavery, the chapter also urges more intersectional analysis of these closely related historical practices.
