Race, Revolution, and Robespierre
The Black Count:
Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo
By Tom Reiss
Crown, $27, 414 pp.
Review by David Forsmark
It sounds like one of those goofy Black History Month blog posts put out by an activist — hey, did you know the inspiration for the Count of Monte Cristo was really black … and his name was Alexandre Dumas?
The first thought that crossed my mind while reading The Black Count — the fascinating new book by Tom Reiss — was “why the heck hadn’t anyone written a major biography of General Alex Dumas before 2012?” This was immediately followed by “why the heck do we have Black History Month if it’s not going to uncover and publicize this man’s story?”
First, to avoid any confusion, the book’s subject is not the 19th century author who penned such adventure classics as The Three Musketeers, The Corsican Brothers, and The Count of Monte Cristo. Rather, this is the tale of the writer’s father, who is not nearly as well known as he deserves to be.
Reiss, author of The Orientalist, presents the story of the son of a French aristocrat and a Dominican slave who rose through the ranks of the French army through feats of incredible valor, only to be betrayed by racist backlash. In the process, Reiss offers a unique look at the first modern-style totalitarian government to be born of revolution.
The Black Count begins in the slave-trading world of colonial France, an oddly hybrid system where French legal protections for people of mixed race clashed with perhaps the most brutal form of European-sponsored slavery in the New World.
Alex enters the historical record at the age of 14, when his father, a rebellious French nobleman who disappeared into the Haitian wilds with his slave mistress, returns after a years-long absence to reclaim his inheritance. Alex, however, is his father’s sole companion when they return to France; his mother and sisters were sold off by his father before the journey. Alex, in fact, was recorded as his father’s slave upon their return.
Alex, however, was brought up as a nobleman’s son and grew into an intellectually and physically imposing figure. Still, he entered the French army as an enlisted dragoon, rather than taking advantage of his titles.
I’ve never understood why Dumas fils isn’t identified as African-French, either. He was part African, and from our point of view would definitely be considered black. Somehow, this gets lost in the shuffle, and the author of “The Three Musketeers” isn’t thought of as anything other than French. Perhaps it’s because his characters were all white…
Not all, his novel Georges has a mixed race protagonist and the story deals a lot with race and slavery.
Dumas was never related as even a metis by us, the third and or the 4th generation looks more like a Mediterranean person.
I think you are confusing Alexandre Dumas fils with Alexandre pere.
Alexandre pere wrote Le Comte de Monte Cristo.
Alexandre fils wrote La Dame aux Camellias.
It was the father of Alexandre pere who was the general born in Haiti.
Of course Alexandre pere is the father of Alexandre fils.
General Dumas was born in Haiti and spent his childhood in Jeremie, Haiti (I lived there for a couple of years).
A piece of trivia: Jean-Jacques Audubon (as in Audubon Society) was born in Les Cayes, Haiti. I also lived in Les Cayes, Haiti for a couple of years.
That Americans did not know that the Dumas’ were not black is not surprising.
That their blackness is relatively unknown to the French is surprising.
Josephine de Beauharnais was a mixed blood too, and that didn’t created any problem in the french noble society
The French are very aware of race. Back in the colonial times, ONLY if a Black can speak and write the King’s French and exercises proper etiquette, he will be considered French and able to become General commanding white soldiers.
The French Colonial Penal code defines the 16 grades from pure Black to pure White and for each grade there is a separate Legal Code.
But then the school books I read as a child (Haitian and French) referred to the race of various historic French figures. I have not been in touch with current French schoolbooks which may have swept away the racial aspects.
this separation between whites and blacks became a hot topic since the “black panthers” manifestations, and that white guiltiness over the “triangularisation” was pushed ahead by the immigrants and the lefties, bizarrely it was rather a African immigration revendication, and not from people from our Antilles colonies
I don’t remember when I was Young that being black and or white had any importance, we had a couple of African students and another couple of Maghrebin students in our classroom, and they were rather regarded as exotic stars than subhumans
in that regard, read this about “Tintin au Congo”, claims against its “racism” came in the years 2000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tintin_in_the_Congo#Racial_stereotypes_and_colonialism
A beautiful woman indeed. In Latin America it is widely accepted that the best legacy of the Spaniard was the ‘mulata’, only half in jest.
Perhaps that the General Dumas exclusion of the Napoleonian army corresponded To Napoleon repudiating Josephine for a Vienna court Noble daughter
déclare Gerard Depardieu
“Au revoir, Je vous dis adieu!”
soixante dix pour cent cinq ans?
Sucré Jésus! J’ai quitterait également, et vous?
hi Buddy,
hmm, I’m not rich, so I don’t need to hide my fortune in Belgium…
In the meanwhile when some Dummkopf stars are making some noise on their departure, some others, more discretly are coming back from their taxes paradises, saying that Money isn’t All in one man’s life, ie Houellebeck, the writer… some rich stars like Line Renaud, Yannick Noah, Michel Sardou… are saying that they are patriots and will not leave the ship when it needs the participation of all.
Depardieu when he wasn’t working between two movies, had a unemployment insurance (as intermittent du spectacle), specific to the show business people, that represented several thousands euro per months… that our taxes gave him, and he also benefitted of the French Cinema subsidies.
so these people are idiots, they just made fool of themselves by showing a ostentatory politician move… their frustrated Sarkozy support
and we aren’t regretting them, they aren’t model of probity and of classy behaviour, just villans
Why would you want to identify as African/French someone who was 7/8th white, was raised in france by French parents and teachers and viewed himself to all intents and purposes as French ?
Well, here in the U.S. there’s an octaroon with a news/Obama praise hour on CNN and she thinks of herself as black. Being black is more cool than being white, I guess.
Nice answer, MC –as always. Nice touch, the dummkopf, like an apple is red, a banana yellow, lettuce is green, but an orange is orange –