Tag Archives: Alexandre Dumas père

The Dumas Dynasty: Thomas-Alexandre Dumas

26 Sunday Jan 2014

Posted by in France, Literature, Mulatto

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Thomas-Alexandre-Dumas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Thomas-Alexandre-Dumas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie or Thomas-Alexandre Dumas

  1. Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie (20 June 1714, at Belleville-en-Caux – 15 June 1786, at Saint-Germain-en-Laye) (he arrived in France in 1775);
  2. Thomas-Alexandre Dumas (25 March 1762, at Jérémie, Saint-Domingue, current Haiti – 26 February 1806, at Villers-Cotterêts [Aisne]), born to a black slave Marie-Cessette Dumas (he arrived in France in 1776);
  3. Alexandre Dumas, père  (24 July 1802 at Villers-Cotterêts – 5 December 1870, at Puy, near Dieppe), the legitimate son of Marie-Louise Labouret;
  4. Alexandre Dumas, fils (Paris 27 July 1824 – 27 November 1895) the illegitimate son of Marie-Laure-Catherine Labay, a dressmaker.

The List

The above list is quite impressive. The descendants of French marquis Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie, a colonel and général commissaire in the artillery of the colony, include a famous general who played a significant role in Napoleon’s early military victories, between 1795 and 1799, the Directoire FR period of French history, or the first Republic.

Not only was Thomas-Alexandre a general but he was:

“the highest-ranking person of color of all time in a continental European army [and he is] the first person of color in the French military to become  brigadier general, the first to become divisional general, and the first to become general-in-chief of a French army.” (See Thomas-Alexandre Dumas , Wikipedia.)

In fact, “Dumas [Thomas Alexandre] shared the status of the highest-ranking black officer in the Western world only with Toussaint Louverture (who in May 1797 became the second black general-in-chief in the French military) until 1975[.]” (See Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, Wikipedia.)

However, Thomas-Alexandre lived at a very difficulty time in the history of France, Revolutionary France. So did Joseph Boulogne, chevalier de Saint-George, the “black Mozart,” a swordsman, an equestrian and Thomas-Alexandre’s life-long friend. They were members of the aristocracy, yet could ill-afford to oppose the notion of equality promoted in Revolutionary France. The two were mulattos, born to freed slaves in the Carribeans: Saint-Domingue (the current Haiti) with respect to Thomas-Alexandre (25 March 1762,- 26 February 1806) and Guadeloupe, in the case of Joseph Boulogne, chevalier de Saint-George (approximately 1745 – 1799).

Aristocrats: Thomas A. Dumas & Saint-George

Both would be in the military during Revolutionary France and would do so as aristocrats. Just how Joseph Boulogne became an aristocrat is not entirely clear in my mind. His father Georges Bologne was ennobled in 1757 and, after completing his studies, Joseph Boulogne was appointed Gendarme de la Garde du Roi (Gendarme of the King’s Guard). In fact, Georges Bologne may have been the descendant of Italian aristocrats, but Joseph was born out-of-wedlock.

Marie-Cessette Dumas

Be that as it may, Thomas-Alexandre, was born to an aristocrat, marquis Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie. Antoine had joined his brother Charles, in Saint-Domingue, but he disappeared probably to escape his creditors. He took three slaves with him and started to live under a pseudonym: Alexandre Delisle. He sold his three slaves so he could buy a small sugar plantation at Jérémie, Saint-Domingue and then purchased “for an exorbitant price,” black slave Marie-Césette (Dumas).

Marie-Césette was not a mulâtresse.[i] It appears she was from Gabón and is the mother of three children: two sons and a daughter or two daughters and a son, by Antoine. Sources differ. But a fourth child, a daughter, was also born to Marie-Césette, or Cessette[ii] before she was bought.

Antoine’s Family Sold à réméré

Thomas-Alexandre and his sisters were sold, with an option to be bought back or the “right of redemption.” This sort of transaction was called à réméré. Antoine-Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie became rich as a slave-trader and also sold various properties in France. He therefore repurchased Thomas-Alexandre who lived in France.

The name Dumas means “from the farm,” but the name could be Dûma,[iii] a name originating from an ethnic group called Fang. Thomas-Alexandre adopted his mother’s surname and it became the name of his very famous son, Alexandre Dumas, père (father) and grandson, Alexandre Dumas, fils (son). Both were very popular writers who were elected to the Académie française.

The most famous Dumas, Alexandre Dumas, père had three illegimate children, one of whom is Alexandre Dumas, fils, born to Marie-Laure-Catherine Labay, a dressmaker. Dumas, fils, was an illegitimate child. He is the author of La Dame aux Camélias, or The Lady of the Camellias.

Antoine Returns to France

Alexandre Dumas, père, by Nadar

Alexandre Dumas, père, by Nadar (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Antoine was presumed dead and his brother Charles had returned to France, playing Marquis. However, Antoine also returned to France and reclaimed his real identity, that of Antoine Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie. That story was fictionalized as The Count of Monte-Cristo (1944), by Dumas, père and his ghost writer  Auguste Maquet. Auguste Maquet also co-wrote The Three Musketeers  (1844). Getting money out of Saint-Domingue was difficult and therefore perfect material for Dumas, père, a passionate writer. The Three Musketeers features d’Artagnan who arrested Nicolas Fouquet.

 

Athos, Porthos, Aramis & D'Artagnan (Photo credit; Wikipedia)

“D’Artagnan, Athos, Aramis, and Porthos” by Maurice Leloir
 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Saint-George and Thomas-Alexandre connection

  • La Boëssière’s Academy

It would appear that marquis Antoine Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie returned to France in c. 1775 and died at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in 1786, just short of the French Revolution (1789 – 1796). He had bought back his son Thomas-Alexandre who met the above-mentioned mulatto and aristocrat Joseph Boulogne, chevalier de Saint-George (25 December 1745 – 10 June 1799) when both studied under fencing master La Boëssière, at La Boëssière’s Academy. That friendship ended with the death of Saint-George who did not find employment after the Revolution and was weakened by a two-year stay in a jail. He may have died of gangrene.

Along with Saint-George, Thomas-Alexandre was an illustrious man of colour in Europe. Thomas-Alexandre entered the military in 1786, at the age of 24. By the age of  31, Dumas was in command of 53,000 troops as the General-in-Chief of the French Army of the Alps. According to Wikipedia, “Dumas’ strategic victory in opening the high Alps passes  enabled the French to initiate their Second Italian Campaign against the Austrian Empire.” (See Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, Wikipedia)

Thomas-Alexandre’s Demise

Thomas-Alexandre also served in Egypt where he had a verbal disagreement with Napoleon Bonaparte himself.  He therefore left on an unsafe ship and was taken prisoner in the Kingdom of Naples and thrown in a dungeon where he was imprisoned from 1799 to 1802.

When he was released, Thomas-Alexandre “was partially paralyzed, almost blind in one eye, had been deaf in one ear but recovered; his physique was broken.”A broken gentleman, Thomas-Alexandre, fathered Alexandre Dumas, père (born 1802) on his return to Villers-Cotterêts. However, Thomas-Alexandre was sick and he was poor, and Napoleon Bonaparte did not help him. He died of a stomach cancer in February of 1806.

Conclusion

The Dumas story is a success story. Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie had a gifted and prominent son, and equally accomplished grandson and great-grandson. In fact, there would be more prominent descendants of Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie and Marie-Cessette Dumas. However, our mulatto heroes, the Chevalier de Saint-George and Thomas-Alexandre Dumas were victims. One was the victim of the French Revolution, the other, Thomas-Alexandre, the victim of a heartless Napoleon Bonaparte. Bonaparte did not have a conscience.

To a person who found fault with his lineage, Alexandre Dumas, père said:

My father was a mulatto, my grandfather was a Negro, and my great-grandfather a monkey. You see, Sir, my family starts where yours ends. [iv]

Wishing all of you a fine weekend.

RELATED ARTICLES

Sources and Resources

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[i] guinguinbali.com

[ii] Reports vary concerning Marie Céseste or Cessette. Some biographers and historians claim she was of mixed ancestry. Some also claim she was not married to Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie. Antoine Alexandre did sell his family à réméré, i.e. with an option to buy then back but he did not claim Marie-Cessette back. It may be that she had died of dysentery c 1772 to 1774.

[iii] According to Alexandre Dumas, père’s Memoirs, Marie-Cessette died in 1772. Antoine married Françoise-Élisabeth Retou in 1786, the year he died. See Mémoires d’Alexandre Dumas FR (online) or The Memoirs of Alexandre Dumas, père’s EN (online)

[iv] Dumas, père & Marguerite de Valois Fictionalized (michelinewalker.com)

Lucia Lacarra and Cyril Pierre
Jules Massenet (12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912)
Thaïs, at Mariinsky Gala 2008
 
Alexandre Dumas, fils, in his later years (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Alexandre Dumas, fils, in his later years (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

© Micheline Walker
25 January 2014
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Créoles, Cajuns & Uncle Remus

22 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by in Mulatto

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Blue Heron, by John James Audubon
Great Blue Heron, by John James Audubon (Photo credit: Google images)
Great Blue Heron, by John James Audubon

Great Blue Heron, by John James Audubon (Photo credit: Google images)

More Notable Créoles 

I mentioned a few notable Créoles[i] in my last post, but did not include Beyoncé, who was born in Houston. Nor did I include General Russel T. Honoré, who was born in Lakeland, in Pointe Coupée Parish, Louisiana. Their case is somewhat problematical because they were not born in a French colony. It may be best to look upon them as descendants of Créoles. Despite his nickname, ‘the Ragin’ Cajun,’ retired US army General Russel T. Honoré is the descendant of a Créole family. Honoré is not an Acadian name.  (See Famous Créoles & Cajuns of today, Wikipedia.)

Créole in a Red Turban, by Jacques Aman (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Créole in a Red Turban, by Jacques Amans (Photo credit: Wikimedia)

Michel Douradou Bringier, 1843, by Jacques Amans

Michel Douradou Bringier, 1843, by Jacques Amans (Photo credit: Wikimedia)

The Cajuns[ii]

The arrival in Louisiana of deported[iii] Acadians (1755 – 1763), known as Cajuns, increased the number of Louisiana citizens originating from France. Their arrival may also have affected Louisiana créole.  However, there were few marriages [iv] between Cajuns and Créoles in colonial Louisiana, or before the 1803 Louisiana Purchase.

Matters may have changed. “Louisiana French dialects are now considered to have largely merged with the original Cajun dialects.” (See Cajun French, Wikipedia). I believe, however, that, initially, the Créole and the Cajun cultures differed substantially, as did the creole language and Cajun French. The Cajun language is rooted in Acadian French whereas Louisiana creole contains foreign linguistic elements, or elements that do not stem from the French language. (See Louisiana Creole French, Wikipedia.)

Moreover, Cajuns were not plantation owners.  Plantation owners could purchase slaves, but the Cajuns were deportees who had been torn away from family members and betrothed, and shipped in different directions without any of their belongings.

Some ships sailed to England and France. As for Acadians herded into ships heading south along the coast of the Thirteen Colonies, they were not allowed to leave their ships until they reached Georgia (US). As Catholics, they were unwanted neighbours. Moreover, when the deported Acadians reached Georgia, chances are the deportees socialized with black and mulattos slaves, rather than their white owners. They were the down-and-outs.

Br'er Rabbit and Tar-Baby

Br’er Rabbit and Tar-Baby (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Joel Chandler Harris

In an earlier post, I suggested that Joel Chandler Harris‘ tales of Uncle Remus may have been brought to Georgia by deported Acadians. In the Uncle Remus stories, Renart the fox, the European trickster, is replaced by Bre’r Rabbit, but the cast is basically the same as in the medieval Reynard the Fox literary cycle, fabliaux and Æsopic fables.

So it could be that Acadians told their stories to black and mulatto slaves, some of whom may have been familiar with Louisiana créole, based on French. However, in all likelihood, Uncle Remus‘ stories would also be rooted, to a certain extent, in African tales.

In other words, the stories would be of mixed origin, as are the Louisiana créole language and the gullah language, a créole English, spoken by African-Americans. Joel Chandler Harris wrote in an eye dialect, nonstandard spelling that replicates, more or less, a gullah pronunciation, br’er for brother.[v] The tales of Uncle Remus are not easy to read.

Thomas-Alexandre-Dumas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Thomas-Alexandre Dumas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Dumas Dynasty

The first Dumas to be taken to France was Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, Dumas père’s father. Thomas-Alexandre was a mulatto born in Saint-Domingue, the current Haiti, to black slave concubine, Marie-Cessette Dumas and her owner, French aristocrat and plantation owner Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie. Mulatto Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, Alexandre Dumas, père‘s father, would become a general in Revolutionary France and befriend Joseph Boulogne, chevalier de Saint-George, the “Black Mozart,” the swordsman, and a legend in his own time. At any rate, I will end here and treat this post as an in-between post. But we are leaving the United States and travelling to Saint-Domingue, Martinique and Guadeloupe.

The Louisiana Purchase

The Louisiana Purchase (Photo credit: Google Images)

RELATED ARTICLES

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[i] “Creole.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 22 Jan. 2014. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/142548/Creole>. 
[ii] “Cajun.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 22 Jan. 2014. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/88637/Cajun>.
[iii] The Deportation of Acadians (The Canadian Encyclopedia).[iv] See EveryCulture.com.
[v] “Gullah.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 22 Jan. 2014. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/249228/Gullah>.
 
Joseph Boulogne, chevalier de Saint-George
Violin Concerto in D major/ré majeur, 2nd & 3rd movements
 
 

Monsieur de Saint-George (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Monsieur de Saint-George (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

© Micheline Walker
22 January 2014
WordPress

Dumas, père & Marguerite de Valois fictionalized

10 Saturday Mar 2012

Posted by in Literature, Mulatto

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Alexandre Dumas, père, by Nadar

Alexandre Dumas, père,
by Félix Nadar*

Félix Nadar* was the pseudonym of Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (1 April 1820, Paris – 23 March 1910), a very famous photographer.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Mendelssohn, Lieder ohne Worte, Op.53 – No. 1. Andante con moto in A flat  (Daniel Barenboim) (please click on the title to hear the music)

From Alexandre Dumas père to Marguerite de Valois

As I mentioned in my post on John James Audubon (16 April 1785 – 27 January 1851), there is kinship between the artist-ornithologist and Alexandre Dumas père. John James Audubon was born in Saint-Domingue, the current Haiti, to a French father and a Creole woman. As for Alexandre Dumas père, he was born in Villers-Cotterêts on 24 July 1802 and died near Dieppe, on 5 December 1870.  But there is a Saint-Domingue connection.

Indeed, Dumas père’s father was the son of the “Marquis Alexandre-Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie, a French nobleman and Général commissaire in the Artillery in the colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) and Marie-Cesette Dumas, an Afro-Caribbean Creole of mixed French and African ancestry.” (Wikipedia)  Therefore, Alexandre was métissé.  Let me quote what he said to a person who found fault with his lineage:

My father was a mulatto, my grandfather was a Negro, and my great-grandfather a monkey. You see, Sir, my family starts where yours ends.

Moreover, both were extremely productive.  They were in fact passionate about what they did.

Imagine the hours Dumas spent at his desk writing The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo and several other historical novels one of which is La Reine Margot, whose story is linked with the growth of absolutism and the related persecution of the Huguenots or French Calvinist Protestants.  You may remember that Marguerite did not want to marry Henri IV, king of Navarre and a protestant who became Henri IV of France after he converted to Catholicism.

Marguerite de Valois (1553-1615)

Dumas’s La Reine Margot (1845)

  • In La Reine Margot (Queen Margot), Dumas focusses on Marguerite’s wedding to Henri IV, kin of Navarre, which took place on 18 August 1572, five days before the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.  Again you may remember that her marriage to Henri IV was an arranged marriage and that, because he was a Huguenot, Henri IV stood outside Notre-Dame de Paris while he was wedded.  It appears she had a liaison with Henri, duc de Guise, a leader among Catholics.
  • By extension, Dumas also focusses on the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre which took place in the early morning hours of 24 August 1572, six days after Marguerite was unwillingly wedded to Henri IV.  Huguenots had come to Paris for the wedding, which meant they were trapped.  So not only was the marriage an arranged marriage, but Catherine de’ Medici took advantage of favorable circumstances to manipulate her son Charles IX into ordering the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.  Although she had been compelled to marry Henri IV, king of Navarre, Marguerite protected him.
  • Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Dumas focusses on Marguerite’s subsequent affair with Count Joseph Boniface de La Môle (c. 1526 – 30 April 1574), a nobleman who had befriended François d’Alençon, a prince of the blood and brother to Charles IX, Henri III (duc d’Anjou).  La Môle was accused of having participated in the Malcontent’s conspiracy of 1574 and, specifically, of having tried to murder king Charles IX.  Despite Marguerite’s pleas, La Môle was tortured and beheaded, place de Grève, in Paris.

Such a story was of course perfect fodder for a novelist and fabulous material for filmmaker Patrice Chéreau whose treatment of the subject was tactful. Chéreau’s Reine Margot, 1994, starring Isabelle Adjani, Daniel Auteuil, Virna Lisi and Vincent Perez was both an artistic and a box office success.

Conclusion

However, I am reflecting that, although she lived a dissolute life, going from lover to lover and plotting, Marguerite de Valois was Marguerite de France and, the last of the Valois line.  She ended a dynasty.  Had it not been for the Salic law, commissioned by the first king of all the Franks, Clovis I (c. 466–511), she would have been queen of France after her brother Henri III died.  Instead, the man she married unwillingly and who would not have anything to do with her, became king of France and king of Navarre.  But she refused to have their marriage annulled while his mistress, Gabrielle d’Estrées, was alive.

Marguerite was forced into a marriage.  She was a helpless witness to the torture and decapitation of La Môle and, in 1586, her brother Henri III banished her for eighteen years to the inaccessible castle of Usson, in Auvergne.

Yes, Marguerite lived a rather dissolute life, but she was an exceptionally well-educated woman whose Mémoires, written in comfy detention, thanks to Guise, have literary merit.  Moreover, when she was free to return to Paris, in 1605, she had a castle built where she was a hostess to writers, artists, intellectuals and, perhaps, lovers.  I was taught that she was a “nymphomanic.”

However, she continued to write not only her Mémoires, published in 1658, but also poetry.  As the French would say, “elle avait des lettres” or she was well-educated.

After her release, she cultivated a friendly relationship with her former husband, Marie de’ Medici, his wife, and their children.

I am not about to attempt a rehabilitation of Marguerite de Valois, but let’s just say that, somehow, I understand.

The Young Marguerite de Valois, by François Clouet

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“Margaret Of Valois.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/364625/Margaret-of-Valois>.

© Micheline Walker
March 12, 2012
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