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QUEBEC CITY — Aly Ndiaye uses the heel of his boot to remove the frozen snow from a display case outside city hall, and reveals a reproduction of a 1760 print by British military artist Richard Short.

The print depicts the Jesuit college that once stood here and the damage it sustained during the British conquest of Quebec City. Most tour guides remark on the gaping holes caused by cannon fire.

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Not Ndiaye. He points instead to a small black child in a corner of the print.

Dressed formally — white hat, billowy short pants and white knee socks — the boy is following an affluent-looking white couple.

“This is the first image of a black person in Quebec,” Ndiaye explains. “Maybe even in Canadian history.”

The boy’s formal attire and the safe distance he maintains behind the couple indicate that the child, who does not appear to be older than 10, was their slave.

The display, Ndiaye says, encapsulates black history in Quebec: “It’s there, but we don’t see it.”

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Photo by Mathieu Belanger / Montreal Gazette

February is Black History Month. In Quebec, most people are unaware of the black and native slavery in their province’s past. And yet, between 1629 and 1833, there were a reported 4,185 slaves here. Many lived in Quebec City, where they were employed in the homes of wealthy and prestigious families.