Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie was a Creole general, from the French colony of Saint-Domingue, in Revolutionary France.
47 Facts About Thomas-Alexandre Dumas
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas was the first person of color in the French military to become brigadier general, divisional general, and general-in-chief of a French army.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas was born into slavery because of his mother's status, but his father took him to France in 1776 and had him educated.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas lived with them and worked at the plantation until 1748.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas used a wharf in the neutral border territory of Monte Cristo.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas had served a 15-day sentence for being involved in selling defective weapons to the French military.
Marie-Cessette Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, described as a "great matriarch to a saga of distinguished men", was an enslaved woman and concubine of African descent owned by the Marquis Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas sold Marie-Cessette Dumas, their other two children, and her daughter by another man to a baron from Nantes before leaving Saint-Domingue.
Some scholars have suggested that "Thomas-Alexandre Dumas" was not a surname for Marie-Cessette, but, meaning "of the farm", was added to her first names to signify that she belonged to the property.
Secondary sources on General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, dating back to 1822, almost always describe his mother as a black African.
Two other documents attest that Marie-Cessette was alive after 1772: a letter recounting her sale in 1775 and an 1801 document signed by Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, saying that "Marie-Cezette" will be in charge of General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas's properties in Saint-Domingue.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas used the name "Retore" during and for some years after the period in which his father sold him and then re-purchased him.
The first record of him as "Alexandre Thomas-Alexandre Dumas" is in the registry book of the Queen's Dragoons.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas had two siblings by his parents: Adolphe and Jeannette.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas's father sold Marie-Cessette and her other three children before taking Thomas-Alexandre to France.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas learned swordsmanship from the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, another mixed-race man from the French Caribbean.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas's 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, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas lived a life of considerable leisure.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas did not sign as witness to the marriage contract.
Unlike his noble peers, who took arms as commissioned officers, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas enlisted as a private.
Thomas-Alexandre 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".
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas spent his first years in the Queen's Dragoons in the provincial town of Laon, Picardy, close to the border with the Austrian Netherlands.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas lodged at the Labourets' Hotel de l'Ecu for four months, during which time he became engaged to Claude Labouret's daughter Marie-Louise.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas was one of 10,000 men under the command of the General Biron.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas frequently commanded the legion, as Saint-Georges was often absent.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas was responsible for consolidating the recent government victory over a massive insurgency in the region of the Vendee against the French revolutionary government.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas focused on increasing military discipline and eliminating soldiers' abuses of the local population.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas participated in the French attack on Dusseldorf, where he was wounded.
Tension between the two generals began as Thomas-Alexandre Dumas resisted Napoleon's policy of allowing French troops to expropriate local property.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas was omitted from mention in Napoleon's battle report to the Directory, France's government at the time.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas was then given a command well beneath his rank, leading a subdivision under General Massena, despite a petition from Dumas's troops attesting to his valor.
Under Joubert, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas led a small force that defeated several enemy positions along the Adige River.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas spent much of 1797 as military governor, administering Treviso province, north of Venice.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas joined an enormous French armada in preparation for departure to a secret destination.
Aboard the Guillaume Tell, in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas learned that he had been appointed as commander of all cavalry in the Army of the Orient.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas soon participated in the Battle of the Pyramids and the occupation of Cairo.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas requested leave to return to France, and Napoleon did not oppose it.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas had sold the furnishings of his quarters in Cairo, and purchased 4,000 pounds of moka coffee; eleven Arabian horses to establish breeding stock in France; and hired the ship.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas's wife lobbied his government for assistance in finding and rescuing her husband, to little result.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas made few political statements, but those he made suggest deeply felt republican beliefs.
One month after the French National Convention abolished slavery, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas sent a message to troops under his command in the Army of the Alps:.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas stayed in Villers-Cotterets with her family during his military campaigns.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas repeatedly wrote to Napoleon Bonaparte, seeking back-pay for his time lost in Taranto and a new commission in the military.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas died of stomach cancer on 26 February 1806 in Villers-Cotterets, when his son Alexandre was three years and seven months old.
Marie-Louise Labouret Thomas-Alexandre Dumas worked in a tobacconist's shop to make ends meet.
For lack of funds, the young Alexandre Thomas-Alexandre Dumas was unable to get even a basic secondary education.
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas is a dateable non-player character in the historically-based dating sim video game Ambition: A Minuet in Power published by Joy Manufacturing Co.