Panis (slaves of First Nation descent)

Panis was a term used for slaves of First Nations descent in Canada, a region of New France.[1][2][3] First Nation slaves were generally called Panis (anglicized to Pawnee), with most slaves of First Nations descent having originated from Pawnee tribes. The term later became synonymous with "Indian slave" in the French colony, with a slave from any tribe being called Panis.

For other uses, see panis (disambiguation).

Etymology

As early as 1670, a reference was recorded to a Panis in Montreal. The term is widely described as a corruption of the name of the Panismahas[4], a sub-tribe of the Pawnee people encountered in the Illinois Country, then a remote part of New France.[5]

"In the middle of the 17th century the Pawnees were being savagely raided by eastern tribes that had obtained metal weapons from the French, which gave them a terrible advantage over Indians who had only weapons of wood, flint, and bone. The raiders carried off such great numbers of Pawnees into slavery, that in the country on and east of the upper Mississippi the name Pani developed a new meaning: slave. The French adopted this meaning, and Indian slaves, no matter from which tribe they had been taken, were presently being termed Panis. It was at this period, after the middle of the 17th century, that the name was introduced into New Mexico in the form Panana by bands of mounted Apaches who brought large numbers of Pawnee slaves to trade to the Spaniards and Pueblo Indians."[6]:24

Raiders primarily targeted women and children, to be sold as slaves. In 1694, Apaches brought a large number of captive children to the trading fair in New Mexico, but for some reason there were not enough buyers, so the Apaches beheaded all their slaves in full view of the Spaniards.[6]:46

History

Slavery of First Nations in the colony of New France was formalized through colonial law in 1709, with the passage of the Ordinance Rendered on the Subject of the Negroes and the Indians called Panis.[7] Slaves of First Nations descent were only permitted to be enslaved while within the colony, although in practice enslaved individuals remained enslaved regardless of where they travelled.[7] In 1747, the colonial administration proposed permitting the trade of First Nations slaves for slaves of African descent. However, these attempts were quashed by the French government, fearing it would jeopardize existing Franco-First Nations alliances.[7]

By 1757 Louis Antoine de Bougainville considered that the Panis nation "plays ... the same role in America that the Negroes do in Europe." However, the importation of slaves of First Nations descent began to decline in the decade prior to the British conquest of New France in 1760.[7] A number of New French institutions, including the enslavement of First Nations, was extended into the British regime with the signing of the Articles of Capitulation of Montreal.[7] By the late-18th century, slaves of African descent began to make up a larger portion of slaves imported into British North America.[7]

Several court decisions, and legislative acts passed in the Canadas during the late-18th and early 19th century resulted in the decline of the institution in the colonies.[7] The last slave of First Nations descent in Lower Canada was recorded to have been donated to a Montreal hospital in 1821.[7] The institution was abolished in 1834; at which time, the majority of the slaves in British North America were of African descent.[7]

Number enslaved

According to the Canadian Museum of History 35 individuals were held as slaves in Canada from the establishment of New France to 1699.[1] Most of these individuals were slaves of First Nations origin. From 1700 to 1760 the museum estimated 2,000 slaves were held in Canada; two-thirds of whom were First Nations people.[1] The museum reported most slaves were very young, that the average age of First Nations slaves was just 14 years old. Their mortality was high, as most came from the interior, and lacked immunity to European diseases.

From the mid-17th century to the abolition of slavery in 1834, there were approximately 2,683 slaves of First Nations descent; making up nearly two-thirds of all slaves in British North America during this period.[7][8]

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See also

References
  1. "Population: Slavery". Canadian Museum of History. Archived from the original on 2019-03-24. Retrieved 2019-06-15. In Canada, the majority of slaves were not of African, but rather of Aboriginal origin. Native populations customarily subjugated war captives before the arrival of the French, but this practice acquired new meanings and unprecedented proportions in the context of western expansion. Beginning in the 1670s, the French began to receive captives from their Aboriginal partners as tokens of friendship during commercial and diplomatic exchanges. The Illinois were notorious for the raids which they led against nations to the southeast and from which they brought back captives. By the early eighteenth century, the practice of buying and selling these captives like merchandise was established.
  2. Robert Everett-Green (2014-02-28). "200 years a slave: the dark history of captivity in Canada". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on 2019-06-15. Retrieved 2019-06-15. Many in Quebec had to be content with captives stolen or bought from indigenous peoples, some of whom practiced slavery before the Europeans arrived. About two-thirds of the slaves in Quebec were native people, mostly from the Pawnee nations of modern-day Nebraska, whose French Canadian name – Panis – became a synonym for an indigenous slave of any origin.
  3. Signa A. Daum Shanks (2013). "A Story of Marguerite: A Tale about Panis, Case Comment, and Social History". Native Studies Review. 22 (1). Retrieved 2019-06-15. As typically experienced by other slaves in the New World, panis were not considered persons with respect to legal rights, but they could still be evaluated under the law in criminal matters.
  4. George E. Hyde (1988). The Pawnee Indians. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 24. ISBN 9780806120942. Retrieved 2019-06-15. The raiders carried off such great numbers of Pawnees into slavery that in the country on and east of the upper Mississippi the name Pani developed a new meaning: slave. The French adopted this meaning, and Indian slaves, no matter from which tribe they had been taken, were presently being termed Panis.
  5. Woodson, Carter Godwin; Logan, Rayford Whittingham (1920). The Journal of Negro History. Association for the Study of Negro Life and History.
  6. Hyde, George E. (1974). The Pawnee Indians. Internet Archive. Norman : University of Oklahoma Press.
  7. Lawrence, Bonita (8 May 2020). "Enslavement of Indigenous People in Canada". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
  8. Trudel, Marcel; d'Allaire, Micheline (2013) [1963]. Canada's Forgotten Slaves. Translated by George Tombs. Véhicule Press. p. 64.
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