Guillaume Couillard

Guillaume Couillard was a French colonist who was born on October 11, 1588, in Saint-Servan, France1. He was the first French colonist to be ennobled by King Louis XIV in New France2. He was a carpenter, sailor, and caulker by trade2. He married Guillemette Hébert in Quebec City on August 26, 16212. He died on March 4, 1663, in Quebec City1.

Guillaume Couillard was one of the first people to own an African slave in Canada1. The slave’s real name is unknown but the name his master gave him is well-documented: Olivier Le Jeune1. Ndiaye says Couillard likely owned one of the first African slaves in Canada and he says that slave would have lived in Couillard’s house1.

Olivier Le Jeune was the first recorded slave purchased in New France1. He was a young boy from Madagascar, believed to have been approximately seven years of age when he was brought to the French colonial settlement of Quebec in New France by Scottish privateer David Kirke or one of his brothers, Lewis and Thomas Kirke during their capture of the settlement on behalf of the English Crown1. Olivier Le Jeune was designated as a national historic person in 2022.

Olivier Le Jeune was designated as a national historic person in 2022. He was the first documented person of African descent to have lived on a permanent basis in Canada (New France) during the first half of the 17th century. He was also the first person of African descent known to have been enslaved in the colony, decades before it became a participant in the Atlantic slave trade.