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Famous French Writer and National Hero
...Of Frenchcreole Heritage
One of the most famous
French writers of the 19th century. |
Alexandre
Dumas
one of the most Famous writers in French History was also a Mixed Race Frenchcreole... Although not a Louisiana Creole, He was Born in France of Mixed Race Parents who possessed strong Creole and Caribbean Roots... Many of Our Ancestors have ancestral ties to the Caribbean especial The Dominican Republic and Haiti, but, are non the less of Creole Heritage, Racially Culturally and ethnically..
We also honor Him as Our Creole Hero and as an example what People of Color can accomplish when given the opportunity to fulfill their long time dreams in a Society that does not treat People of Color as instruments of profit but as Human Beings..
In essence Because of Our Cultural Ties to France so many of Our Ancestors we able to achieve much and become leaders in a society where Racism was not always the order of the day ....
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France Honors their Literary Hero
Buried where he had been born, Alexandre Dumas remained in the cemetery at Villers-Cotterêts until 30 November 2002. Under orders of the French President, Jacques Chirac, his body was exhumed, and in a televised ceremony his new coffin, draped in a blue-velvet cloth, and flanked by four Republican Guards (costumed as the Musketeers - Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and D'Artagnan) was transported in a solemn procession to the Panthéon of Paris, the great mausoleum where French luminaries are interred. In his speech President Chirac said:
"With you, we were D'Artagnan, Monte Cristo, or Balsamo, riding along the roads of France, touring battlefields, visiting palaces and castles — with you, we dream."
In that speech President Chirac acknowledged the racism that had existed, saying that a wrong had now been righted, with Alexandre Dumas enshrined alongside fellow authors Victor Hugo and Emile Zola. The honor recognized that although France has produced many great writers, none has been as widely read as Alexandre Dumas. His stories have been translated into almost a hundred languages, and have inspired more than 200 motion pictures.
Alexandre Dumas' home outside of Paris, the Château de Monte-Cristo, has been restored and is open to the public.
The Alexandre Dumas (Paris Métro)station was renamed in his honour in 1970.
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Thomas Alexandre Dumas (1762–1806)
father of the famous French writer Alexandre Dumas (père).
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Thomas-Alexandre Dumas was a mulatto born in the French colony of Saint Domingue. He joined the French Army as a private and rose to the rank of a General during the French Revolution. Dumas is probably best known for fathering the famous French writer Alexandre Dumas (père).
The son of the lesser French nobleman Alexandre-Antoine Davy, Marquis de la Pailleterie, and a black slave woman, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas was born on the island of Saint Domingue on March 25, 1762. In 1772, the Marquis returned to France, followed by his son in 1776. As Dumas grew into manhood he moved to Paris, enjoying life with the financial support of his father. But soon after the senior Davy married his second wife, he suspended the payments to his son.
Without any income, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas decided to join the French Army in 1786. At the request of his father, he enlisted under his mother's name Marie Dumas, in order to preserve the family's reputation. During the French Revolution Dumas became a devout republican serving in an all-black unit known as “La Légion Américaine.” This dedication helped him being catapulted from the rank of a corporal to that of a general of a division in less than two years.
Dumas' relationship with Napoleon Bonaparte, under whom he served in the Italian campaign between 1796 and 1797, was ambivalent. Napoleon admired Dumas' bravery and appreciated his military expertise, but the general's hot temper and his low opinion of Bonaparte often got Dumas into quarrels with his commander. Despite his skepticism about the purpose of the campaign, Dumas followed Napoleon to Egypt in 1798. Disappointed with the Army’s lack of military success, aware of his declining relationship with Napoleon and in poor health, Dumas left Egypt in February 1799. He was shipwrecked off the Italian port of Taranto where he was made prisoner of war by the Neapolitans for two years.
After he was finally released in 1801, Dumas sailed home having lost all of his possessions. Dumas spent his last years recovering from his time as a prisoner with his family in Villier-Cotterêts. Once and again he offered his service to Napoleon, but waited in vain to be restored to active duty. Only the birth of his son Alexandre in 1802, who would later become one of the most famous French writers, brought joy and hope into Dumas’ life. On February 27, 1806, Dumas died at the age of 44.
Sources:
Jon G. Gallaher, General Alexandre Dumas: Soldier of the French Revolution (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1997); André Maurois, The Titans: A Three-Generation Biography of the Dumas (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1957); J.A. Rogers, World's Greatest Men of Color, Volume II (New York: Macmillan, 1972).
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Dumas
is best known for
the historical novels The Three Musketeers and The Count of
Monte Cristo, both written within the space of two years, 1844-45,
and which belong to the foundation works of popular culture.
He was among the first, along with Honoré de Balzac and
Eugène Sue, who fully used the possibilities of roman
feuilleton, the serial novel.
Dumas is credited with revitalizing
the historical novel in France, although his abilities as a
writer were under dispute from the beginning. Dumas' works are
fast-paced adventure tales. They are not faithful to the historical
facts, but blend skillfully history and fiction.
Alexandre
Dumas
was born in Villes-Cotterêts, France. His grandfather
was a French nobleman, who had settled in Santo Domingo;
His
paternal grandmother, Marie-Cessette, was a Creole, who had
been a creole slave in the French colony.
Dumas's father was
a general in Napoleon's army, who had fallen out of favor. After
his death in 1806 the family lived in poverty. Dumas worked
as a notary's clerk in Villers-Cotterêtes and went in
1823 to Paris to find work. Due to his elegant handwriting he
secured a position with the Duc d'Orléans - later King
Louis Philippe.
He also found his place in theater and as a
publisher of some obscure magazines. An illegitimate son called
Alexandre Dumas fils, whose mother, Marie-Catherine Labay, was
a dressmaker, was born in 1824.
Dumas did not generally
define himself as a black man, and there is not much evidence
that he encountered overt racism during his life. However, his
works were popular among the 19th-century Frenchcreoles, partly because in The Count of Monte-Cristo, the falsely imprisoned
Edmond Dantès, may be read as a parable of emancipation.
In a shorter work, GEORGES (1843, George), Dumas examined the
question of race and colonialism. The main character, a half-French
mulatto, leaves Mauritius to be educated in France, and returns
to avenge himself for the affronts he had suffered as a boy.
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