![Statue of General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Statue_of_General_Thomas-Alexandre_Dumas.jpg)
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (; known as Alexandre Dumas; 25 March 1762 – 26 February 1806) was a Creole
general, from The French colony of
Saint-Domingue, in
Revolutionary France. Along with his French contemporary
Joseph Serrant,
Toussaint Louverture
François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture (; also known as Toussaint L'Ouverture or Toussaint Bréda; 20 May 1743 – 7 April 1803) was a Haitian general and the most prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution. During his life, Louverture ...
in
Saint-Domingue and
Abram Petrovich Gannibal
Abram Petrovich Gannibal, also Hannibal or Ganibal, or Abram Hannibal or Abram Petrov ( ru , Абра́м Петро́вич Ганниба́л; c. 1696 – 14 May 1781), was a Russian military engineer, general-in-chief, and nobleman of Africa ...
in
Imperial Russia, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas is notable as a man of African descent (in Dumas's case, through his mother) leading European troops as a
general officer. He was the first
person of color in the French military to become
brigadier general
Brigadier general or Brigade general is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries. The rank is usually above a colonel, and below a major general or divisional general. When appointed ...
,
divisional general, and
general-in-chief
General in Chief has been a military rank or title in various armed forces around the world.
France
In France, general-in-chief (french: général en chef) was first an informal title for the lieutenant-general commanding over others lieutenant- ...
of a French army.
Born in
Saint-Domingue, Thomas-Alexandre was the son of
Marquis Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie, a French
nobleman
Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The characteris ...
, and of
Marie-Cessette Dumas
Marie-Cessette Dumas (1714–1786) was an enslaved woman in the French colony of Saint Domingue. She was the mother of General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, the grandmother of novelist Alexandre Dumas, and the great-grandmother of playwright Alexandre D ...
, a
slave of African descent. He was born into slavery because of his mother's status, but his father took him to France in 1776 and had him educated. Slavery had been illegal in metropolitan France since 1315 and thus any slave would be freed ''de facto'' by being in France. His father helped him enter the French military.
Dumas played a large role in the
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars (french: Guerres de la Révolution française) were a series of sweeping military conflicts lasting from 1792 until 1802 and resulting from the French Revolution. They pitted France against Britain, Austria, Prussia ...
. Entering the military in 1786 as a private at age 24, he commanded 53,000 troops as the General-in-Chief of the French
Army of the Alps
The Army of the Alps (''Armée des Alpes'') was one of the French Revolutionary armies. It existed from 1792–1797 and from July to August 1799, and the name was also used on and off until 1939 for France's army on its border with Italy.
1792 ...
by age 31. Dumas's victory in opening the high
Alpine passes This article lists the principal mountain passes and tunnels in the Alps, and gives a history of transport across the Alps.
Main passes
The following are the main paved road passes across the Alps. Main indicates on the main chain of the Alps, fr ...
in 1794 enabled the French to initiate their
Second Italian Campaign against the
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence ...
. During the battles in
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
, Austrian troops nicknamed Dumas the ''Schwarzer Teufel'' ("Black Devil", ''Diable Noir'' in French). in 1797. The French—notably
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
—nicknamed him "the
Horatius Cocles
Publius Horatius Cocles was an officer in the army of the early Roman Republic who famously defended the Pons Sublicius from the invading army of Etruscan King Lars Porsena of Clusium in the late 6th century BC, during the war between Rome and ...
of the Tyrol" (after a hero who had saved ancient Rome) for defeating a squadron of enemy troops at a bridge over the
Eisack River in Clausen (today
Klausen, or ''Chiusa'', Italy) in March 1797.
Dumas participated in the French attempt to conquer Egypt and the Levant during the
''Expédition d’Égypte'' of 1798-1801, when he was a commander of the French cavalry forces. On the march from Alexandria to Cairo, he clashed verbally with the Expedition's supreme commander
Napoleon Bonaparte, under whom he had served in the
Italian campaigns. In March 1799, Dumas left
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
on an unsound vessel, which was forced to run aground in the southern Italian
Kingdom of Naples, where he was taken prisoner and thrown into a dungeon. He languished there until the spring of 1801.
Returning to France after his release, he and his wife had a son,
Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870), who would become one of France's most widely-read authors. The son's most famous literary characters were inspired by his father.
Ancestry
Born 25 March 1762 in
Jérémie
Jérémie ( ht, Jeremi) is a commune and capital city of the Grand'Anse department in Haiti. It had a population of about 31,000 at the 2003 census. It is relatively isolated from the rest of the country. The Grande-Anse River flows near th ...
,
Saint-Domingue (today
Haiti), Thomas-Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie was the son of a French nobleman,
Marquis Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie
(20 June 1714,
Belleville-en-Caux–15 June 1786,
Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Saint-Germain-en-Laye () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the centre of Paris.
Inhabitants are called ''Saint-Germanois'' or ''Saint-Ge ...
[Death certificate of Alexandre-Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 16 June 1786, Musée Alexandre Dumas (Villers-Cotterêts, France).]) and
Marie-Cessette Dumas
Marie-Cessette Dumas (1714–1786) was an enslaved woman in the French colony of Saint Domingue. She was the mother of General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, the grandmother of novelist Alexandre Dumas, and the great-grandmother of playwright Alexandre D ...
(b. unknown; d. during or after 1772, La Guinodée, Saint-Domingue), an
enslaved African woman he owned.
Father
Noble pedigree
Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie,
born 1714, was the oldest of three sons of the
Marquis Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie (1674 – 25 December 1758) and Jeanne-Françoise Paultre (or Pautre) de Dominon (d. 1757). The Davy de la Pailleteries were provincial Norman aristocrats whose wealth was in decline. The family had acquired the title of "lords" (''seigneurs'') by 1632. The French kingdom granted the title "marquis" to the family by 1708.
Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie ("Antoine") had two younger brothers, Charles Anne Edouard (Charles) (b. 1716, d. 1773) (married 1738 to Anne-Marie Tuffé), and Louis François Thérèse (Louis) (b. 1718, d. 1773). All three were educated at a military school and pursued careers as officers in the French military. They first served during the
War of the Polish Succession
The War of the Polish Succession ( pl, Wojna o sukcesję polską; 1733–35) was a major European conflict sparked by a Polish civil war over the succession to Augustus II of Poland, which the other European powers widened in pursuit of thei ...
. Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie, who reached the rank of colonel, saw action at the
Siege of Philippsburg in 1734.
Career in Saint-Domingue
In 1732, Antoine's younger brother Charles had been given a military posting in
Saint-Domingue, a French colony in the
Caribbean that generated high revenues from its
sugarcane plantations
A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Th ...
, worked by African
slave labor. In 1738, Charles left the military to become a sugar planter in that colony; he married Anne-Marie Tuffé, a rich local French Creole widow, and took over her estate.
That year Antoine also left the Army and joined his brother and sister-in-law in Saint-Domingue. He lived with them and worked at the plantation until 1748. In that year, the two brothers quarreled violently,
after which Antoine left Charles's plantation, taking his three personal slaves with him. At this point, Antoine broke off contact with his brother and his family for a period of thirty years, although they both lived on the same small island.
[Count de Maulde’s request at the Parliament, 30 November 1778, Archives départementales du Pas-de-Calais (Dainville and Arras, France), 10J35.] Antoine made a living in
Jérémie
Jérémie ( ht, Jeremi) is a commune and capital city of the Grand'Anse department in Haiti. It had a population of about 31,000 at the 2003 census. It is relatively isolated from the rest of the country. The Grande-Anse River flows near th ...
,
Saint-Domingue as a coffee and
cacao planter, under the assumed name of "Antoine de l'Isle".
At some point during these years, Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie purchased the slave woman Marie-Cessette "for an exorbitant price" and made her his
concubine
Concubinage is an interpersonal and sexual relationship between a man and a woman in which the couple does not want, or cannot enter into a full marriage. Concubinage and marriage are often regarded as similar but mutually exclusive.
Concubi ...
. In 1762, she gave birth to their
mixed-race
Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-eth ...
son Thomas-Alexandre. During her time with Antoine, she also bore him two or three daughters.
Antoine's mother, the Marquise Jeanne-Françoise, died in 1757 and his father, the Marquis Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie, died in 1758. Charles (although younger than Antoine) returned to Normandy to claim the title of Marquis and the family château. The British blockade of French shipping during the
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (175 ...
reduced Charles' income from sugar exports, so he tried to smuggle the commodity out of Saint-Domingue from his plantation. He used a wharf in the neutral border territory (and tiny island) of Monte Cristo (today
Monte Christi,
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...
). (Some historians argue that this island inspired
Alexandre Dumas's ''
The Count of Monte Cristo.'') Charles died of
gout
Gout ( ) is a form of inflammatory arthritis characterized by recurrent attacks of a red, tender, hot and swollen joint, caused by deposition of monosodium urate monohydrate crystals. Pain typically comes on rapidly, reaching maximal intens ...
in 1773; Louis, the youngest of the Davy de la Pailleterie brothers, died three months later. He had served a 15-day sentence for being involved in selling defective weapons to the French military (a famous scandal at the time known as the Invalides Trial
'le procès des Invalides''. Two years after the death of both his younger brothers, Antoine returned to Europe.
Mother
Marie-Cessette Dumas
Marie-Cessette Dumas (1714–1786) was an enslaved woman in the French colony of Saint Domingue. She was the mother of General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, the grandmother of novelist Alexandre Dumas, and the great-grandmother of playwright Alexandre D ...
, described as a "great matriarch to a saga of distinguished men", was an enslaved woman and
concubine
Concubinage is an interpersonal and sexual relationship between a man and a woman in which the couple does not want, or cannot enter into a full marriage. Concubinage and marriage are often regarded as similar but mutually exclusive.
Concubi ...
of African descent owned by the Marquis Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie.
[Letter from M. de Chauvinault, former royal prosecutor in ]Jérémie
Jérémie ( ht, Jeremi) is a commune and capital city of the Grand'Anse department in Haiti. It had a population of about 31,000 at the 2003 census. It is relatively isolated from the rest of the country. The Grande-Anse River flows near th ...
, Saint Domingue
Saint-Domingue () was a French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1804. The name derives from the Spanish main city in the island, Santo Domingo, which came to re ...
, to the Count de Maulde, 3 June 1776, privately held by Gilles Henry. Note: It says Dumas's father (then known as Antoine de l’Isle) “bought from a certain Monsieur de Mirribielle a negress named Cesette at an exorbitant price,” then, after living with her for some years, “sold... the negress Cezette” along with her two daughters "to a... baron from Nantes." Original French: "il achetais d’un certain Monsieur de Mirribielle une negresse nommée Cesette à un prix exhorbitant"; "qu’il a vendu à son depart avec les negres cupidon, la negresse cezette et les enfants à un sr barron originaire de nantes." (The spelling of her name varies within the letter.) They resided together at a plantation called La Guinaudée
(Guinodée
[Marriage contract and marriage certificate, both 28 November 1792, Musée Alexandre Dumas (Villers-Cotterêts, France). A copy of the certificate is also held in Archives de l’Aisne (Laon, France), 304 E 268.]), near
Jérémie
Jérémie ( ht, Jeremi) is a commune and capital city of the Grand'Anse department in Haiti. It had a population of about 31,000 at the 2003 census. It is relatively isolated from the rest of the country. The Grande-Anse River flows near th ...
(formerly in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, now
Haiti) until shortly before Antoine's departure in 1775. He sold Marie-Cessette Dumas, their other two children, and her daughter by another man to a baron from Nantes before leaving Saint-Domingue.
The only source for her full name, "Marie-Cessette Dumas", with that spelling, is General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas's later marriage certificate and contract.
Her grandson's memoir gave her name as Louise, and another source recorded Cécile. Sources have spelling variations of her name, as standardization was not common.
[Judgment in a dispute between Alexandre Dumas (named as Thomas Rethoré) and his father’s widow, Marie Retou Davy de la Pailleterie, Archives Nationale de France, LX465. His mother's name is Marie-Cesette Dumas (spelled "Cezette") and referred to as “Marie Cezette, negress, mother of Mr. Rethoré” (“Marie Cezette negresse mere dud. uditS. Rethoré”)] Some scholars have suggested that "Dumas" was not a surname for Marie-Cessette, but, meaning "of the farm" (''du mas''), was added to her first names to signify that she belonged to the property. Others have suggested African origins of the names Cessette and Dumas, including Gabon or Dahomey.
The two extant primary documents that state a racial identity for Marie-Cessette Dumas refer to her as a "
négresse" (a
black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...
female) as opposed to a "
mulâtresse" (a female of visible
mixed race
Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-ethn ...
).
Secondary sources on General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, dating back to 1822, almost always describe his mother as a black African ("''femme africaine''", "''négresse''", "''négresse africaine''", "''noire''", or "pure black African").
Death
Sources differ on the date and circumstance of her death. Two documents signed by Alexandre Dumas—his contract and certificate of marriage to Marie-Louise Labouret—state that Marie-Cessette died in La Guinaudée, near
Trou Jérémie,
Saint-Domingue, in 1772.
Based on this date, Victor Emmanuel Roberto Wilson speculates that she may have died in the mass outbreak of
dysentery
Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...
following a hurricane that struck the
Grand Anse region of Saint-Domingue.
Two other documents attest that Marie-Cessette was alive after 1772: a letter recounting her sale in 1775
and an 1801 document signed by Dumas, saying that "Marie-Cezette" will be in charge of General Dumas's properties in Saint-Domingue. Thomas-Alexandre Dumas may have earlier claimed that she had died in order to avoid having to get her approval before marriage and revealing her slave status. In addition, he was in a hurry to leave for the military front.
Names
Dumas used several names in his life: Thomas-Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie, Thomas Rethoré (or Retoré), Alexandre Dumas, Alex Dumas, and Thomas-Alexandre Dumas-Davy de la Pailleterie. "Davy de la Pailleterie" is his father's family name. He used the name "Retoré" (sometimes spelled Rethoré) during and for some years after the period in which his father sold him and then re-purchased him (1775–1776). According to biographer
Tom Reiss, the name Retoré was "picked up from a neighbor in Jérémie (where the name can be found on official records of the period)". "Dumas" is from his mother. The first record of him as "Alexandre Dumas" is in the registry book of the Queen's Dragoons (joined 2 June 1786).
[Registry of the Dragoons in the Regiment of the Queen, Dumas entry, 2 June 1786, privately held by Gilles Henry.] (It was known in his platoon that this was "not his real name".) He used the simple form "Alex Dumas" starting in 1794. General Dumas used the full name "Thomas-Alexandre Dumas-Davy de la Pailleterie" on his son's birth certificate.
Appearance
The enlistment roll-book for the 6th Regiment of the Queen's Dragoons, which Dumas joined in 1786, described him as "6 feet tall, with frizzy black hair and eyebrows... oval face, and brown skinned, small mouth, thick lips". According to his earliest-known description (1797), he was "one of the handsomest men you could ever meet.
..His frizzy hair recalls the curls of the Greeks and Romans." It described his face as 'something closer to ebony' than to 'bronze.'" General Dumas was described as 'dark—very dark.'
Early life
Thomas-Alexandre had two siblings by his parents: Adolphe and Jeannette. They also had an older half-sister, Marie-Rose, born to Marie-Cessette before Davy de la Pailleterie purchased her and began a relationship. His father sold Marie-Cessette and her other three children before taking Thomas-Alexandre to France.
In 1776, when Alexandre was 14, his father sold the boy for 800 French livres in
Port-au-Prince, officially to a Lieutenant Jacques-Louis Roussel (but unofficially to a Captain Langlois). This sale (with right of redemption) provided both a legal way to have Alexandre taken to France with Langlois and a temporary loan to pay for his father's passage. The boy accompanied Captain Langlois to
Le Havre
Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very ...
, France, arriving on 30 August 1776, where his father bought him back and freed him.
From his arrival in France until Autumn 1778, Alexandre (named Thomas Retoré) first lived with his father at the Davy de la Pailleterie family estate in
Belleville-en-Caux,
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
. After his father sold that estate in 1777, they moved to a townhouse on the rue de l'Aigle d'Or in the Parisian suburb of
Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Saint-Germain-en-Laye () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the centre of Paris.
Inhabitants are called ''Saint-Germanois'' or ''Saint-Ge ...
. There, Alexandre studied at the academy of , where he was given a young nobleman's higher education. He learned swordsmanship from the
Chevalier de Saint-Georges
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (25 December 1745 – 10 June 1799), was a French Creole virtuoso violinist and composer, who was conductor of the leading symphony orchestra in Paris.
Saint-Georges was born in the then-French colo ...
, another
mixed-race
Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-eth ...
man from the
French Caribbean
The French West Indies or French Antilles (french: Antilles françaises, ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Antiy fwansez) are the parts of France located in the Antilles islands of the Caribbean:
* The two overseas departments of:
** Guadeloupe, ...
.
Flush with cash from the sale of his family estate, Davy de la Pailleterie for many years spent lavishly on Dumas. His notary said that the boy "cost him enormously". From 1777 to 1786, from age 15 to 24, thanks to his father's wealth and generosity, Dumas lived a life of considerable leisure.
In 1784, at age 22, Alexandre moved to an apartment on Rue Etienne, near the
Louvre Palace in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
, socializing at venues such as the
Palais-Royal and
Nicolet's Theater. In September 1784, while seated at Nicolet's Theater in the company of "a beautiful Creole" woman, he and his companion were harassed by a white colonial naval officer, Jean-Pierre Titon de Saint-Lamain, and one or two others. Following Dumas's verbal protests, the men "tried to force him to kneel before his attacker and beg for his freedom". The police report on the incident shows that Titon chose not to press charges as he might have, and all participants were released.
Military career
Enlistment and service in the Queen's Dragoons
In February 1786 his father Davy de la Pailleterie married Françoise Retou, a domestic servant from the Davy de la Pailleterie estate. Dumas did not sign as witness to the marriage contract. According to his son's memoir, the marriage precipitated a "cooling off" which led the father to tighten Dumas's allowance.
Soon after, Dumas decided to join the French Army, a common occupation for gentlemen. Unlike his noble peers, who took arms as commissioned officers, Dumas enlisted as a private. A 1781 rule enabled men who could show four generations of nobility on their father's side to qualify to be commissioned as officers. Dumas had this, but the French race laws "made it hard for a man of mixed race to claim his rightful title or noble status".) According to the novelist Dumas's account, on hearing of Alexandre's plan, his father insisted that his son take a "''nom de guerre''" in order that he not drag the noble name "through the lowest ranks of the army". He signed up for the
6th Regiment of the Queen's Dragoons as "Alexandre Dumas" on 2 June 1786;
thirteen days later, his father died.
Dumas spent his first years in the
Queen's Dragoons in the provincial town of
Laon
Laon () is a city in the Aisne department in Hauts-de-France in northern France.
History
Early history
The holy district of Laon, which rises a hundred metres above the otherwise flat Picardy plain, has always held strategic importance. ...
,
Picardy, close to the border with the
Austrian Netherlands
The Austrian Netherlands nl, Oostenrijkse Nederlanden; french: Pays-Bas Autrichiens; german: Österreichische Niederlande; la, Belgium Austriacum. was the territory of the Burgundian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire between 1714 and 1797. The pe ...
. On 15 August 1789, following the beginning of the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
, his unit was sent to the small town of
Villers-Cotterêts
Villers-Cotterêts () is a commune in the Aisne department in Hauts-de-France, France. It is notable as the signing-place in 1539 of the '' Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts'' discontinuing the use of Latin in official French documents, and as ...
. The town's newly formed
National Guard
National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards.
Nat ...
leader, innkeeper Claude Labouret, had called for them to come in response to a wave of rural violence known as the
Great Fear
The Great Fear (french: Grande Peur) was a general panic that took place between 22 July to 6 August 1789, at the start of the French Revolution. Rural unrest had been present in France since the worsening grain shortage of the spring, ...
. Dumas lodged at the Labourets' Hôtel de l'Ecu for four months, during which time he became engaged to Claude Labouret's daughter Marie-Louise.
Dumas's regiment was in Paris on 17 July 1791, where they served as riot police along with
National Guard
National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards.
Nat ...
units under the
Marquis de Lafayette
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette (6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834), known in the United States as Lafayette (, ), was a French aristocrat, freemason and military officer who fought in the American Revolutio ...
during the
Champ de Mars Massacre of the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
. Troops killed between 12 and 50 people when a large crowd gathered to sign a petition calling for the French King's removal. Two years later, when someone denounced Dumas to the
Committee of Public Safety, he claimed that intervention in the conflict saved as many as 2,000 people.
A corporal by 1792, Dumas had his first combat experience in a French attack on the
Austrian Netherlands
The Austrian Netherlands nl, Oostenrijkse Nederlanden; french: Pays-Bas Autrichiens; german: Österreichische Niederlande; la, Belgium Austriacum. was the territory of the Burgundian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire between 1714 and 1797. The pe ...
in April of that year. He was one of 10,000 men under the command of the
General Biron. Stationed on the Belgian frontier in the town of
Maulde, on 11 August 1792 Dumas captured 12 enemy soldiers while leading a small scouting party of four to eight horsemen.
Second-in-command of the Black Legion
In October 1792, Dumas accepted a commission as lieutenant colonel in (and second-in-command of) the ''
Légion franche des Américains et du Midi'', founded a month earlier by
Julien Raimond
Julien Raimond (1744 – 1801) was a Saint Dominican indigo planter in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, now the Republic of Haiti, who became a leader in its revolution and the formation of Haiti.
Early activism
He was born a free man of co ...
. This was a "free legion" (i.e., formed separately from the regular army) composed of
free men of color (''gens de couleur libres''). It was called the "American Legion", "Black Legion", or Saint-Georges Legion, after its commanding officer, the
Chevalier de Saint-Georges
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (25 December 1745 – 10 June 1799), was a French Creole virtuoso violinist and composer, who was conductor of the leading symphony orchestra in Paris.
Saint-Georges was born in the then-French colo ...
. Dumas frequently commanded the legion, as Saint-Georges was often absent. In April 1793,
General Dumouriez attempted a coup d'état; Saint-Georges and Dumas refused to join it and defended the city of Lille from coup supporters. In the summer of 1793, Saint-Georges was accused of misusing government funds, and the Legion disbanded.
Commander-in-chief of the Army of the Western Pyrenees
On 30 July 1793, he was promoted to the rank of
brigadier general
Brigadier general or Brigade general is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries. The rank is usually above a colonel, and below a major general or divisional general. When appointed ...
in the
Army of the North
The Army of the North ( es, link=no, Ejército del Norte), contemporaneously called Army of Peru, was one of the armies deployed by the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata in the Spanish American wars of independence. Its objective was fre ...
. One month later, he was promoted again, to
general of division
Divisional general is a general officer rank who commands an army division. The rank originates from the French (Revolutionary) System, and is used by a number of countries. The rank is above a brigade general, and normally below an army co ...
. In September, he was made commander-in-chief of the
Army of the Western Pyrenees. In this brief assignment (September–December 1793), Dumas's headquarters were in
Bayonne,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
, where he was apparently nicknamed "Mr. Humanity" (''Monsieur de l'Humanité'') by local ''
sans-culottes
The (, 'without breeches') were the common people of the lower classes in late 18th-century France, a great many of whom became radical and militant partisans of the French Revolution in response to their poor quality of life under the . T ...
;'' they wanted to intimidate him to conform to their political line at a time when French generals were extremely vulnerable to accusations of treason that often led to execution.
Commander-in-chief of the Army of the Alps
On 22 December 1793, Dumas was given command of the
Army of the Alps
The Army of the Alps (''Armée des Alpes'') was one of the French Revolutionary armies. It existed from 1792–1797 and from July to August 1799, and the name was also used on and off until 1939 for France's army on its border with Italy.
1792 ...
. His campaign in the Alps centered on defeating
Austrian
Austrian may refer to:
* Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent
** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law
* Austrian German dialect
* Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...
and
Piedmontese
Piedmontese (; autonym: or , in it, piemontese) is a language spoken by some 2,000,000 people mostly in Piedmont, northwestern region of Italy. Although considered by most linguists a separate language, in Italy it is often mistakenly reg ...
troops defending the glacier-covered
Little Saint Bernard Pass at
Mont Cenis
Mont Cenis ( it, Moncenisio) is a massif (el. 3,612 m / 11,850 ft at Pointe de Ronce) and a pass (el. 2,085 m / 6,840 ft) in Savoie (France), which forms the limit between the Cottian and Graian Alps.
Route
The term "Mont Cenis" cou ...
, on the French-Piedmont border. After months of planning and reconnaissance from his base in
Grenoble
lat, Gratianopolis
, commune status = Prefecture and commune
, image = Panorama grenoble.png
, image size =
, caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...
, he had to wait for snow conditions to be favorable to his troops' passage. In April and May 1794, Dumas launched several assaults on Mont Cenis. In the final attack, Dumas's army, equipped with ice
crampons
A crampon is a traction device that is attached to footwear to improve mobility on snow and ice during ice climbing. Besides ice climbing, crampons are also used for secure travel on snow and ice, such as crossing glaciers, snowfields and ice ...
, took the mountain by scaling ice cliffs and captured between 900 and 1,700 prisoners.
[Reiss (2012), ''The Black Count,'' pp. 160–176.]
Though his victory won Dumas praise from political leaders in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
, he was called before the
Committee of Public Safety in June 1794, for reasons unspecified but probably to face charges of treason, as this was the period of the "Great Terror", a period of accelerated political executions in the final months of the
Reign of Terror period of the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
. Dumas delayed his arrival in Paris until mid-July, and was not seen by the Committee before the Terror ended with the execution of
Robespierre on 27 July 1794.
Commander-in-chief of the Army of the West (1793) in the Vendée
In early August 1794 Dumas was briefly assigned to command the
École de Mars military school at
Neuilly-sur-Seine near
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
. He was reassigned to lead the
Army of the West from August to October 1794. He was responsible for consolidating the recent government victory over a
massive insurgency in the region of the Vendée against the French revolutionary government. He focused on increasing military discipline and eliminating soldiers' abuses of the local population. One historian, despite or because of his pro-royalist sentiments, characterised Dumas in this command as "fearless and irreproachable", a leader who "deserves to pass into posterity and makes a favorable contrast with the executioners, his contemporaries, whom public indignation will always nail to the pillory of History!"
General in the Army of the Rhine (France)
In September 1795 Dumas served under General
Jean-Baptiste Kléber
Jean-Baptiste Kléber () (9 March 1753 – 14 June 1800) was a French general during the French Revolutionary Wars. After serving for one year in the French Royal Army, he entered Habsburg service seven years later. However, his plebeian ancest ...
in the
Army of the Rhine
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
. He participated in the French attack on Düsseldorf, where he was wounded.
General in the Army of Italy
Siege of Mantua
General Dumas joined the
Army of Italy in
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
in November 1796, serving under the orders of commander-in-chief
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...
. Tension between the two generals began as Dumas resisted Napoleon's policy of allowing French troops to expropriate local property. In December 1796, Dumas was in charge of a division besieging Austrian troops at the city of
Mantua
Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and '' comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the province of the same name.
In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture. In 2017, it was named as the Eur ...
. By Christmas he intercepted a spy carrying a message to the Austrian commander with important tactical information. On 16 January 1797, Dumas and his division halted an Austrian attempt to break out of the besieged city and prevented Austrian reinforcements from reaching Mantua. The French were thereby able to maintain the siege until French reinforcements could arrive, leading to the city's capitulation on 2 February 1797.
Campaign in Northern Italy
Following the 16 January fighting, Dumas felt insulted by the description of his actions in a battle report by
General Berthier,
Bonaparte's aide-de-camp, and wrote a letter to Napoleon cursing Berthier. Dumas was subsequently omitted from mention in
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
's battle report to the
Directory
Directory may refer to:
* Directory (computing), or folder, a file system structure in which to store computer files
* Directory (OpenVMS command)
* Directory service, a software application for organizing information about a computer network's u ...
, France's government at the time. He was then given a command well beneath his rank, leading a subdivision under
General Masséna, despite a petition from Dumas's troops attesting to his valor. Under General Masséna in February 1797, Dumas helped French troops push the Austrians northward, capturing thousands. It was in this period that Austrian troops began calling him the ''der schwarze Teufel'' ("Black Devil", or ''Diable Noir'' in French).
In late February 1797, Dumas transferred to a division commanded by
General Joubert, who requested Dumas for his
republicanism
Republicanism is a political ideology centered on citizenship in a state organized as a republic. Historically, it emphasises the idea of self-rule and ranges from the rule of a representative minority or oligarchy to popular sovereignty. It ...
. Under Joubert, Dumas led a small force that defeated several enemy positions along the
Adige River. Dumas's achievement in this period came on 23 March, when the general drove back a squadron of Austrian troops at a bridge over the
Eisack River in Clausen (today
Klausen, or Chiusa,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
). For this the French began referring to him as "the
Horatius Cocles
Publius Horatius Cocles was an officer in the army of the early Roman Republic who famously defended the Pons Sublicius from the invading army of Etruscan King Lars Porsena of Clusium in the late 6th century BC, during the war between Rome and ...
of the
Tyrol
Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...
" (after a hero who saved ancient Rome).
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
called Dumas by this, and rewarded him by making him cavalry commander of French troops in the Tyrol; he also sent Dumas a pair of pistols. Dumas spent much of 1797 as military governor, administering
Treviso province, north of
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
.
Commander of Cavalry in the French Campaign in Egypt
Dumas was ordered to report to
Toulon
Toulon (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and the Provence province, Toulon is th ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
, in March 1798 for an unspecified assignment. He joined an enormous French armada in preparation for departure to a secret destination. The armada departed on 10 May 1798, destination still unannounced. It was only on 23 June, after the fleet had conquered
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
, that
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
announced that the mission's main purpose: to conquer Egypt. Aboard the ''Guillaume Tell'', in the middle of the
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...
, Dumas learned that he had been appointed as commander of all cavalry in the
Army of the Orient. The armada arrived in the port of
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...
at the end of June, and on 3 July Dumas led the Fourth Light Grenadiers over the walls as the French conquered the city. After fighting, Napoleon sent Dumas to pay ransom to some
Bedouins who had kidnapped French soldiers. The expedition's chief medical officer recounted in a memoir that local Egyptians, judging Dumas's height and build versus Napoleon's, believed Dumas to be in command. Seeing "him ride his horse over the trenches, going to ransom the prisoners, all of them believed that he was the leader of the Expedition."
From 7 to 21 July, Dumas commanded the invading army's cavalry as it marched south from Alexandria to
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...
. Conditions of heat, thirst, fatigue, and lack of supplies for the troops on the desert march were harsh; there were a number of suicides. While camped in
Damanhour
Damanhur ( ar, دمنهور ', ; Egyptian: ''Dmỉ-n-Ḥr.w''; cop, ⲡϯⲙⲓⲛ̀ϩⲱⲣ '; ; grc, Ἑρμοῦ πόλις μικρά ') is a city in Lower Egypt, and the capital of the Beheira Governorate. It is located northwest of Cai ...
, General Dumas met with several other generals (
Lannes,
Desaix, and
Murat Murat may refer to:
Places Australia
* Murat Bay, a bay in South Australia
* Murat Marine Park, a marine protected area
France
* Murat, Allier, a commune in the department of Allier
* Murat, Cantal, a commune in the department of Cantal
Elsewhe ...
). They vented criticisms of
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
's leadership and discussed the possibility of refusing to march beyond Cairo. Dumas soon participated in the
Battle of the Pyramids
The Battle of the Pyramids, also known as the Battle of Embabeh, was a major engagement fought on 21 July 1798, during the French Invasion of Egypt. The battle took place near the village of Embabeh, across the Nile River from Cairo, but was n ...
(following which he chased retreating
Mameluke
Mamluk ( ar, مملوك, mamlūk (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural), translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave", also transliterated as ''Mameluke'', ''mamluq'', ''mamluke'', ''mameluk'', ''mameluke'', ''mamaluke'', or ''marmeluke'') i ...
horsemen) and the occupation of Cairo. At some point during the occupation, Napoleon learned of the earlier mutinous talk, and confronted Dumas. In his memoirs, Napoleon remembered threatening to shoot Dumas for sedition. Dumas requested leave to return to
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
, and Napoleon did not oppose it. Napoleon was reported to have said: "I can easily replace him with a brigadier."
Following the
destruction of the French armada by a British fleet led by
Horatio Nelson, however, Dumas was unable to get out of Egypt until March 1799. In August 1798, Dumas discovered a large cache of gold and jewels beneath a house in French-occupied Cairo, which he turned over to Napoleon. In October, he was important in putting down an anti-French
revolt in Cairo by charging into the
Al-Azhar Mosque
Al-Azhar Mosque ( ar, الجامع الأزهر, al-Jāmiʿ al-ʾAzhar, lit=The Resplendent Congregational Mosque, arz, جامع الأزهر, Gāmiʿ el-ʾazhar), known in Egypt simply as al-Azhar, is a mosque in Cairo, Egypt in the histori ...
on horseback. Afterward (according to his son, drawn largely from the memories of Dumas's aide-de-camp Dermoncourt), Napoleon told him: "I shall have a painting made of the taking of the Grand Mosque. Dumas, you have already posed as the central figure." The Girodet painting, however, which Napoleon commissioned eleven years later, shows a white man charging into the mosque.
On 7 March 1799, Dumas boarded a small ship called the ''Belle Maltaise'' in the company of his fellow General Jean-Baptiste Manscourt du Rozoy, the geologist
Déodat Gratet de Dolomieu
Dieudonné Sylvain Guy Tancrède de Gratet de Dolomieu usually known as Déodat de Dolomieu (; 23 June 175028 November 1801) was a French geologist. The mineral and the rock dolomite and the largest summital crater on the Piton de la Fournaise vo ...
, forty wounded French soldiers, and a number of Maltese and Genoan civilians. Dumas had sold the furnishings of his quarters in Cairo, and purchased 4,000 pounds of ''moka'' coffee; eleven Arabian horses (two stallions and nine mares) to establish breeding stock in France; and hired the ship.
While returning to
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
, the ship began to sink, and Dumas had to jettison much of his cargo. The ship was forced by storms to land at
Taranto
Taranto (, also ; ; nap, label= Tarantino, Tarde; Latin: Tarentum; Old Italian: ''Tarento''; Ancient Greek: Τάρᾱς) is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto, serving as an important com ...
, in the
Kingdom of Naples. Dumas and his companions expected to get a friendly reception, having heard that the Kingdom had been overthrown by the
Parthenopean Republic
The Parthenopean Republic ( it, Repubblica Partenopea, french: République Parthénopéenne) or Neapolitan Republic (''Repubblica Napoletana'') was a short-lived, semi-autonomous republic located within the Kingdom of Naples and supported by the ...
. But that short-lived republic had succumbed to an internal uprising by a local force known as the
Holy Faith Army, led by
Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo, in alliance with
King Ferdinand IV of the Kingdom of Naples, who was at war with France.
Imprisonment in the Kingdom of Naples
The Holy Faith Army imprisoned Dumas and the rest of the passengers and confiscated most of their belongings. Early on in the captivity, Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo tried to trade Dumas for a Corsican adventurer named Boccheciampe, an imposter posing as Prince Francis, son of Ferdinand IV, in order to aid the Holy Faith movement. Boccheciampe had been captured by French forces north of the Neapolitan kingdom, shortly after he had visited the prisoners, who were held inside
Taranto
Taranto (, also ; ; nap, label= Tarantino, Tarde; Latin: Tarentum; Old Italian: ''Tarento''; Ancient Greek: Τάρᾱς) is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto, serving as an important com ...
's Aragonese Castle, but Ruffo lost interest in a trade when he learned Boccheciampe had been killed by the French.
Dumas was malnourished and kept incommunicado for two years. By the time of his release, he was partially paralyzed, almost blind in one eye, had been deaf in one ear but recovered; his physique was broken. He believed his illnesses were caused by poisoning. During his imprisonment, he was aided by a secret local pro-French group, which brought him medicine and a book of remedies. In November 1799, Napoleon had returned to Paris and
seized power. Dumas's wife lobbied his government for assistance in finding and rescuing her husband, to little result. Napoleon's forces, under the command of Dumas's fellow general
Joachim Murat
Joachim Murat ( , also , ; it, Gioacchino Murati; 25 March 1767 – 13 October 1815) was a French military commander and statesman who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars. Under the French Empire he received the ...
, eventually defeated Ferdinand IV's army and secured Dumas's release in March 1801.
Political views
Dumas made few political statements, but those he made suggest deeply felt
republican beliefs. One month after the
French National Convention
The National Convention (french: link=no, Convention nationale) was the parliament of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for the rest of its existence during the French Revolution, following the two-year National ...
abolished slavery (4 February 1794), Dumas sent a message to troops under his command in the
Army of the Alps
The Army of the Alps (''Armée des Alpes'') was one of the French Revolutionary armies. It existed from 1792–1797 and from July to August 1799, and the name was also used on and off until 1939 for France's army on its border with Italy.
1792 ...
:
Your comrade, a soldier and General-in-Chief ... was born in a climate and among men for whom liberty also had charms, and who fought for it first. Sincere lover of liberty and equality, convinced that all free men are equals, he will be proud to march out before you, to aid you in your efforts, and the coalition of tyrants will learn that they are loathed equally by men of all colors.
Marriage and family
On 28 November 1792, stationed with the Black Legion in
Amiens
Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of ...
, Dumas married Marie-Louise Élisabeth Labouret in
Villers-Cotterêts
Villers-Cotterêts () is a commune in the Aisne department in Hauts-de-France, France. It is notable as the signing-place in 1539 of the '' Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts'' discontinuing the use of Latin in official French documents, and as ...
. She stayed in Villers-Cotterêts with her family during his military campaigns. Dumas bought a farm of 30 acres there. They had daughters Marie-Alexandrine (b. September 1794), Louise-Alexandrine (b. January/February 1796, d. 1797), and a son,
Alexandre Dumas, who became a notable author, with success in plays and adventure novels.
Later years and death
After he gained release in 1801, Dumas was not awarded "the pension normally allocated to the widows of generals" by the French government and he struggled to support his family after his return to France. He repeatedly wrote to
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...
, seeking back-pay for his time lost in Taranto and a new commission in the military. He died of
stomach cancer on 26 February 1806 in
Villers-Cotterêts
Villers-Cotterêts () is a commune in the Aisne department in Hauts-de-France, France. It is notable as the signing-place in 1539 of the '' Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts'' discontinuing the use of Latin in official French documents, and as ...
, when his son Alexandre was three years and seven months old. The boy, his sister, and his widowed mother were plunged into deeper poverty. Marie-Louise Labouret Dumas worked in a tobacconist's shop to make ends meet. For lack of funds, the young Alexandre Dumas was unable to get even a basic secondary education. Marie-Louise lobbied the French government to pay her military widow's pension. Marie-Louise and the young Alexandre blamed Napoleon Bonaparte's "implacable hatred" for their poverty.
Legacy and honors
*The general's grandson,
Alexandre Dumas ''fils'' (1824-1895), became a celebrated French playwright in the second half of the nineteenth century. Another grandson, (1851-1915), never recognized by the novelist Dumas, was a left-leaning theater-critic in the same period.
*Dumas's name is inscribed on the south wall of the
Arc de Triomphe.
*In 1913, a statue of General Dumas was erected in Place Malesherbes (now Place du Général Catroux) in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
in Autumn 1912 after a long fundraising campaign spearheaded by
Anatole France
(; born , ; 16 April 1844 – 12 October 1924) was a French poet, journalist, and novelist with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters. He was a member of the Académie França ...
and
Sarah Bernhardt. From the moment of its installation until some time after July 1913 the statue was covered by a shroud due to the difficulty of the numerous governmental agencies involved to reach agreement on the modalities of its official inauguration. It stood in Place Malesherbes for thirty years, alongside statues of Alexandre Dumas's descendants
Alexandre Dumas, ''père'' (erected 1883) and
Alexandre Dumas ''fils'' (erected 1906), as well as of
Sarah Bernhardt.
Germans
, native_name_lang = de
, region1 =
, pop1 = 72,650,269
, region2 =
, pop2 = 534,000
, region3 =
, pop3 = 157,000
3,322,405
, region4 =
, pop4 = ...
destroyed it in the winter of 1941–1942.
*In 2009, a sculpture in his honor, made by Driss Sans-Arcidet, was erected in Paris, Place du Général Catroux (formerly Place Malesherbes). Representing broken slave shackles, it was unveiled on 4 April 2009. Critic Jean-Joël Brégeon claimed that the symbolism of the statue was inappropriate due to his noble upbringing, he had never been a slave. However, his father sold and then re-purchased Alexandre Dumas, disproving this. Dumas biographer Tom Reiss suggested that the monument is inappropriate for other reasons: "In the race politics of twenty-first-century France, the statue of General Dumas had morphed into a symbolic monument to all the victims of French colonial slavery ... There is still no monument in France commemorating the life of General Alexandre Dumas."
*In April 2009, writer
Claude Ribbe
Claude Ribbe (born 13 October 1954) is a French writer, activist and filmmaker.
Early life and education
Ribbe was born in Paris and is alumnus of the Ecole normale superieure.
Career
Ribbe has specialised in the history of colonialism in the ...
started an internet petition, asking French President
Nicolas Sarkozy to award General Dumas the
Légion d'honneur
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...
. As of February 2014, the petition has gathered over 7,100 signatories.
Portrayal in popular culture
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas is a dateable
non-player character in the historically-based
dating sim video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
''Ambition: A Minuet in Power'' published by Joy Manufacturing Co.
See also
*
Abram Petrovich Gannibal
Abram Petrovich Gannibal, also Hannibal or Ganibal, or Abram Hannibal or Abram Petrov ( ru , Абра́м Петро́вич Ганниба́л; c. 1696 – 14 May 1781), was a Russian military engineer, general-in-chief, and nobleman of Africa ...
*''
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo''
*
Representation of slavery in European art
African portrayed in European art date back to ancient times. They show slaves of varied ethnicity, white as well as black.
In Europe, slavery became increasingly associated with blackness from the 17th century onwards. However, slaves before t ...
*
Museum Alexandre Dumas
To Liberty! The Adventures of Thomas-Alexandre Dumas: A Bloosmbury Reader by Catherine Johnson children's book about the life of Thomas-Alexandre Dumas
References
Further reading
*Alexandre Dumas, ''père''. ''Mes mémoires'' Vol. 1 (Paris, 1881).
*Jon G. Gallaher, ''General Alexandre Dumas: Soldier of the French Revolution'' (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1997).
*Ernest d’Hauterive, ''Un soldat de la Révolution: Le Général Alexandre Dumas (1762–1806)'' (Paris, 1897).
*Gilles Henry, ''Les Dumas: Le secret de Monte Cristo'' Condé-sur-Noiraud: Corlet, 1982).
*André Maurel, ''Les trois Dumas'' (Paris: Librairie illustrée, 1896).
*André Maurois, ''The Titans: A Three-Generation Biography of the Dumas'' (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1957).
*
Tom Reiss, ''
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo'' (New York: Crown Publishers, 2012).
*Claude Ribbe, ''Alexandre Dumas, le dragon de la reine'' (Paris: Éditions du Rocher, 2002).
*Claude Ribbe, ''Le diable noir'' (Monaco: Alphée, 2008).
*Victor Emmanuel Roberto Wilson, ''Le Général Alexandre Dumas: Soldat de la liberté'' (Quebec: Quisqueya-Québec, 1977).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dumas, Thomas-Alexandre
1762 births
1806 deaths
People of Saint-Domingue
People from Jérémie
French generals
Haitian people of French descent
Haitian people of Mulatto descent
French Republican military leaders of the French Revolutionary Wars
Deaths from cancer in France
Deaths from stomach cancer
Black commanders of the Napoleonic Wars
Names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe
18th-century slaves
Haitian slaves
Dumas family