The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo – Tom Reiss

Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie was a general in revolutionary France and the highest ranking man of African descent ever in a European army.  He was the first Black man 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.  He was one of the two highest ranking officers of Black heritage in the western world all the way up until 1975 when “Chappie” James acheived the equivalent rank in the US Air Force.

If you ever read The Count of Monte Cristo or The Three Musketeers, these stories were, in part, based upon his life written by his son Alexandre Dumas.

His entry into the French army at the age of 24 skyrocketed his fame as a charismatic and capable fighter ultimately leading over 53,000 troops and earning the Austrian nickname Schwarzer Teufel, or “Black Devil,” and “Horatius Cocles of Tyrol,” after a hero that saved ancient Rome.

He, obviously, clashed frequently with Napoleon Bonaparte, primarily with his racist ideology and when fate dealt General Dumas a bad hand, Napoleon re-installed slavery and banished any pension to any army personnel of mixed raced or African descent.

Despite his leadership in victory during the French Revolutionary War, to this day, there still is no monument of this great man in France.