thebaldian: alexander dumas
Thomas Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie (Haiti 1792, France 1806) was his name on birth, but he gave up his aristocrat father’s surnames and took his slave mother’s: Dumas.
So his son and grandson had that same surname: the famous writers both called Alexandre Dumas. His father took Thoma s Alexandre to France and gave him an aristocrat’s education.
In 1786 he quarrelled with his father and joined the army as a mere squaddie. He fought in Belgium, Vendée, the Alps, Italy and Egypt and was the first ever black general in the French Army.
A true revolutionary, he was called “The Civilised Man” because of his support for civilians and strict control of his soldiers.
He was arrested on return from Egypt and he was not helped by Napoleon. Worse still, slavery was reintroduced and been a black gener al was a problem.
D’Artagnan’s enemies and the Count of Montecristo’s bad luck, based on Thomas Alexandre’s, were used by his son and grandson in their books.
France still hasn’t given him the Legion of Honour; the statue of him which so me fans put up in 1906 was destroyed by the Nazis.
Le Pen followers coming to power in Villers-Cotterêts and not commemorating slavery was the latest insult to the “Black Devil”.
So his son and grandson had that same surname: the famous writers both called Alexandre Dumas. His father took Thoma s Alexandre to France and gave him an aristocrat’s education.
In 1786 he quarrelled with his father and joined the army as a mere squaddie. He fought in Belgium, Vendée, the Alps, Italy and Egypt and was the first ever black general in the French Army.
A true revolutionary, he was called “The Civilised Man” because of his support for civilians and strict control of his soldiers.
He was arrested on return from Egypt and he was not helped by Napoleon. Worse still, slavery was reintroduced and been a black gener al was a problem.
D’Artagnan’s enemies and the Count of Montecristo’s bad luck, based on Thomas Alexandre’s, were used by his son and grandson in their books.
France still hasn’t given him the Legion of Honour; the statue of him which so me fans put up in 1906 was destroyed by the Nazis.
Le Pen followers coming to power in Villers-Cotterêts and not commemorating slavery was the latest insult to the “Black Devil”.
