Marguerite Duplessis

Marie-Marguerite Duplessis Radisson ( – after 1740) was a Pawnee woman who was enslaved in New France.

Duplessis may have been first enslaved in Iowa by the Winnebago Nation. In 1726 she was given to French trader René Bourassa near Baie-des-Puants (now Green Bay) who in turn gifted the child to Madeline Coulon de Villiers, the widow of François-Antoine Lefebvre Duplessis Faber, who lived in Montreal at the home of Étienne Volant de Radisson, a merchant. On or about 1 October 1740 she presented a petition claiming to be the baptised daughter of Duplessis Faber, and asking the court to recognize that she was a free woman. On 20 October 1740 the court rejected her petition and recognised Huart Dormicourt as her master and owner. Although her appeal for freedom was unsuccessful, she was one of the first enslaved people in New France who succeeded in even having her case heard by a court.

Nothing is known of her after 1740; she was likely sent to labour in Martinique and may not have survived the journey.