figure with a nonetheless largely elided place in the Canadian national narrative (Johnston, n.d.; Johnston, 2001; Pachai, 1987). ${ }^{2}$  
There are similar silences on the role of slavery in the creation and definition of the early colonial spaces that would become Canada. However, according to the historical record, in 1628 a child was brought to Quebec from Madagascar or Guinea, possibly by British Commander David Kirke during the British invasion of New France (1628-1629). The petit nègre was sold at the age of 6 or 7 years for 50 écus to Le Baillif, a French clerk who had entered the service of the English. Before departing with the British in July 1632, when Quebec was restored to French control, Le Baillif gave the enslaved child to Guillaume Couillard de Lespinay, carpenter and seaman (Provost, 2017). In Couillard's household, the young African was taught catechism by the Jesuit priest Paul Le Jeune and in 1633, when he was baptized, he took the first name Olivier, from Olivier Letardif, the head clerk of the Compagnie des Cent-Associés, which controlled the colony and the surname of the priest (Trudel, 2017). As Robin W. Winks argues, Olivier Le Jeune, enslaved African, 'was neither the first slave nor the first Negro in New France, but he was the first of whom there is any adequate record' (Winks, 2000, p. 1). It is difficult to know exactly what Le Jeune's duties involved; however, his labour was possibly utilized in a variety of ways since Couillard had 10 children, at least 100 acres of land and a flour mill (Provost, 2017). It is not clear if Le Jeune remained enslaved until his death in 1654, when the burial register listed him as a domestique, nor whether his case was unique in the earliest period of European colonization.