Video: Brett Rushforth on Indigenous and Atlantic Slaveries in New France

“On the one hand I knew that the French were known in North America for their success at forming Indian alliances and learning Native languages, intermarrying with Native women, and fairly successfully integrating themselves into the Native communities for the purposes of the fur trade. But on the other hand, I also knew that there were households in the St. Lawrence Valley and the French colonies that held Native Americans as slaves. And I was interested in how these two things worked together.”—Brett Rushforth

In this video produced by the College of William and Mary, Rushforth discusses the questions that drove the research and writing of his new book Bonds of Alliance: Indigenous and Atlantic Slaveries in New France, including the personal stories of slaves who had to navigate different slave cultures as they were traded to different regions throughout their lives. (running time 4:46)