Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. Our next couple of Saturday classics are inspired
Speaker 1: by both recent and upcoming episodes of the show. So
Speaker 1: coming up next week we have an episode related to
Speaker 1: the French Revolution that has a connection to Toma Alexander Duma,
Speaker 1: and then our previous October episode on the Ludon Possessions
Speaker 1: referenced work by his son Alexander Duma peer So over
Speaker 1: the next two Saturdays, we are re releasing our two
Speaker 1: episodes on them. They are different episodes, not a two parter,
Speaker 1: but I just kind of I like having them somewhat together.
Speaker 1: Today's classic on Toma Alexandre Duma originally came out on
Speaker 1: February twenty fifth, twenty nineteen. Enjoy Welcome to Stuff You
Speaker 1: Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. Hello, and
Speaker 1: welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracey V. Wilson and I'm
Speaker 1: Holly Frye. If you've listened to the show for a while,
Speaker 1: you've heard us periodically talk about the accidental two parters
Speaker 1: where we got into an episode that we did not
Speaker 1: intend to stretch into two parts, but it was so
Speaker 1: fascinating or so involved that it did. In today's show
Speaker 1: is not exactly an accidental two parter. It's more like
Speaker 1: an accidental duology. Because Alexandra Dumat is probably a familiar
Speaker 1: name to most of our listeners. There are actually two
Speaker 1: of those. There's Alexander Duma Pere, the father who wrote
Speaker 1: things like The Three Musketeers and the Count of Monte Cristo,
Speaker 1: and then his son Alexander Duma Fieu. People call him
Speaker 1: that to try to differentiate between the two of them.
Speaker 1: He wrote the play that became the basis for Verdi's
Speaker 1: opera La Traviata. So Alexandra Duma Pere had been on
Speaker 1: my list for a really long time, and I had
Speaker 1: toyed with the idea of doing kind of a father
Speaker 1: son duo package, especially when we started to plan our
Speaker 1: upcoming trip to France this June. It seemed particularly appropriate
Speaker 1: to get into their stories when we have that on
Speaker 1: the horizon. But as I got into this research, I
Speaker 1: started to realize that I did not really so much
Speaker 1: want to talk about the father son pair of Alexandra's Duma.
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about the elder Alexander and his father,
Speaker 1: General Tooma Alexander Duma. Both of their stories are fascinating
Speaker 1: and incredibly dramatic and basically the general sounds like a
Speaker 1: character out of one of his son's books, because he
Speaker 1: pretty much was. And he's even more appropriate to talk
Speaker 1: about in connection to this trip that we're taking to Paris,
Speaker 1: because a lot of that trip is based around the
Speaker 1: French Revolution, which took place while the general was in
Speaker 1: the French Army. This episode and the forthcoming one on
Speaker 1: his son are there really standalone episodes. You don't need
Speaker 1: to listen to one to be able to understand the other,
Speaker 1: but there will be some points of interconnectivity between them.
Speaker 1: Toma Alexandre Duma was born to Toma Alexandro Davis de
Speaker 1: la Payetrie. His father was Antoine Alexandle de vill Marquis
Speaker 1: de la Pietrie, who went by Antoine. Antoine had moved
Speaker 1: from France to the French colony of San Damongue which
Speaker 1: is now Haiti in the late seventeen thirties. After moving
Speaker 1: to the island, Antoine had spent the next decade more
Speaker 1: or less freeloading off of his younger brother, who had
Speaker 1: married into a family of wealthy sugar planters. That in
Speaker 1: seventeen forty eight there was some kind of argument between
Speaker 1: the two of them. That prompted Antoine to take three
Speaker 1: of his brothers, enslaved laborers, one of whom was a
Speaker 1: young woman, and leave that plantation in the middle of
Speaker 1: the night. The details are a mystery, but it seems
Speaker 1: like there was some sort of family rift of a
Speaker 1: major nature at work here or else. Antoine was just
Speaker 1: trying to shirk his responsibilities. He did not tell anyone
Speaker 1: where he was going, and when his mother and father
Speaker 1: died in seventeen fifty seven. In seventeen fifty eight, no
Speaker 1: one could find any trace of him. He was the eldest,
Speaker 1: so they were looking for him pretty hard. It was
Speaker 1: later determined that he had moved to the parish of
Speaker 1: Jeremie in the southwestern part of the island and had
Speaker 1: started going by the name Antoine Delille or Antoine of
Speaker 1: the Island. He also had four children there with a
Speaker 1: woman named Marie Cassette Duma. One of them was Toma Alexander,
Speaker 1: who went by alex and was born on March twenty fifth,
Speaker 1: seventeen sixty two. It's clear from the colonial record that
Speaker 1: Marie Cassette was enslaved, and that other people thought the
Speaker 1: amount of money that Antoine paid for her was excessive.
Speaker 1: What isn't clear is whether she and Antoine were later married.
Speaker 1: To discourage the births of biracial children, colonial law imposed
Speaker 1: fines on white men who fathered children with enslaved women,
Speaker 1: regardless of who was enslaving them at the time, but
Speaker 1: this fee was waived and the mother and her children
Speaker 1: were freed if the father married her. Alex's son, Alexandre Duma,
Speaker 1: would later write that his grandparents had been married, but
Speaker 1: there is no written documentation of that marriage ever happening.
Speaker 1: After Antoine absconded to Jeremi, his younger brother, Charles, went
Speaker 1: back to France. He maintained that he was the oldest
Speaker 1: of his late parents surviving children, and he took control
Speaker 1: of the family's estates, and he started a smuggling operation
Speaker 1: back on the island of Espaniola, moving sugar and enslaved
Speaker 1: people through a port that was known as Monte Cristo
Speaker 1: on the border between Spanish and French territory. In seventeen
Speaker 1: seventy five, after both of Antoine's brothers had ruined most
Speaker 1: of their own investments and died, Antoine returned to France
Speaker 1: with his birth certificate as proof of who he was
Speaker 1: ready to take control of his family estates and start
Speaker 1: up a series of legal fights with his surviving family members.
Speaker 1: To finance the trip, he had sold his children and
Speaker 1: their mother when it came to Tolmin Alexandle, though he
Speaker 1: made the sale conditional so that he could buy him
Speaker 1: back once he had access to his money in France.
Speaker 1: He never saw his other children again. So Alex was
Speaker 1: fourteen when this happened, and he arrived in France on
Speaker 1: August thirtieth, seventeen seventy six. He was listed on the
Speaker 1: ship's manifest as the slave Alexandra, but once he was
Speaker 1: reunited with his father, he was treated more like the
Speaker 1: teenage son of an aristocrat. His father legally recognized him
Speaker 1: as his own and started giving him the kind of
Speaker 1: education that was expected of somebody of his station. Alex
Speaker 1: hadn't had much formal education at all in Santa Manga,
Speaker 1: so he was way behind his peers. He started spending
Speaker 1: his days with tutors and fencing instructors in the like,
Speaker 1: learning everything from classical languages to European style hunting. They
Speaker 1: learned very quickly, though, and he seemed to become quite
Speaker 1: skilled at whatever he put his mind to. He also
Speaker 1: started adjusting to French society. Back in Santamang, they had
Speaker 1: been in a community in which a lot of the
Speaker 1: people around them were black or multiracial, but in France,
Speaker 1: most of the people around them were white. Was not
Speaker 1: the only free person of color in France's more affluent society,
Speaker 1: though many had come to France in much the same
Speaker 1: way that Alex had. They were the children of affluent
Speaker 1: frenchmen who had spent time in the Caribbean colonies and
Speaker 1: fathered children with enslaved or free women of color. This
Speaker 1: was in spite of the sorts of laws that we
Speaker 1: mentioned before, which attempted to discourage into racial marriages and
Speaker 1: the births of multi racial children, either in or out
Speaker 1: of wedlock. Some of these people of color had also
Speaker 1: become quite prominent. For example, Joseph Boulong, the Chevalier de
Speaker 1: Saint George, had been born in Guadalupe to a white
Speaker 1: father and a free black woman in seventeen forty five.
Speaker 1: The Chevalier was reportedly the best swordsman in all of France,
Speaker 1: and he was also a composer who was nicknamed Black Mozart.
Speaker 1: He would also play a part in Alex's military life
Speaker 1: later on, which we will get to. Alex and his
Speaker 1: father had an extravagant and lavish lifestyle, and as he
Speaker 1: got older, Alex increasingly traveled to pay, which was about
Speaker 1: a three hour trip from their estate. He moved there
Speaker 1: in the spring of seventeen eighty four at the age
Speaker 1: of twenty two. The free black community in Paris was
Speaker 1: often viewed with this combination of derision and curiosity. They
Speaker 1: simultaneously faced discrimination and also were almost admired as kind
Speaker 1: of exotic and unique. In Alex's case in particular, he
Speaker 1: was frequently described as having an extremely handsome face, an
Speaker 1: excellent build, and a lovely skin color. But he was also,
Speaker 1: as one example, arrested at a theater in September of
Speaker 1: seventeen eighty four after a naval officer and his companions
Speaker 1: started harassing the woman that Alex was escorting. When Alex
Speaker 1: tried to warn them off, they called him her lackey
Speaker 1: and then started hurling racist taunts at him. On February thirteenth,
Speaker 1: seventeen eighty six, Alex's father, who was in his seventies,
Speaker 1: married his thirty three year old housekeeper, Marie Francois Friteu,
Speaker 1: the marquis started focusing his money on his new wife
Speaker 1: rather than on his son. Alex had no way to
Speaker 1: support himself, so about two weeks after the wedding, which
Speaker 1: he appears not to have attended, he decided to join
Speaker 1: the army. We'll talk about that more after a sponsor break.
Speaker 1: Becoming an army officer was a very common employment for
Speaker 1: young men in the French nobility in the eighteenth century.
Speaker 1: As long as they could prove that they had four
Speaker 1: generations of nobility on their father's side, they were entitled
Speaker 1: to become commissioned officers, and Alex had that, but France
Speaker 1: also had discriminatory race laws that made it a lot
Speaker 1: harder for him to actually claim it. So he told
Speaker 1: his father that he was just going to enlist as
Speaker 1: a private, and it did not even matter to him
Speaker 1: which unit he enlisted in. He was just going to
Speaker 1: go join whichever one he found first. According to his
Speaker 1: son's memoirs, the marquis told him quote, that is all
Speaker 1: very fine, but as I am the Marquis de la Pietrie,
Speaker 1: a colonel and Commissary General of Artillery, I will not
Speaker 1: allow you to drag my name in the mire of
Speaker 1: the lowest ranks of the army. His father was kind
Speaker 1: of a jerk, that was not clear. So Alex joined
Speaker 1: the army under his mother's name, describing himself as quote
Speaker 1: son of Antoine and Sissette Duma, which is just the
Speaker 1: shadiest way to do that in terms of the way
Speaker 1: he was talking about his father. And from that point
Speaker 1: on he was just known as Alexandra Duma, also dropping
Speaker 1: the Toma part of his name for the most part.
Speaker 1: He joined the Queen's Dragoons on June second, seventeen eighty six,
Speaker 1: and this was not at all a prestigious unit. They
Speaker 1: were often on the front lines and the dirtiest and
Speaker 1: most dangerous parts of battle, basically treated as cannon fodder.
Speaker 1: So not only had he become a private, he had
Speaker 1: become a private in a unit that his father would
Speaker 1: not have approved of at all. Then just a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks later, on June fifteenth, his father died. It
Speaker 1: does not appear that Alex was there, and he wasn't
Speaker 1: one of the signatures on the death certificate. I find
Speaker 1: it like I have this little bit of gleefulness about
Speaker 1: the fact that his father was so concerned about the
Speaker 1: family name and then almost immediately died, had not really
Speaker 1: needing to have worried about it. Soon though, Alex was
Speaker 1: developing quite the reputation as a soldier, and he was
Speaker 1: also reportedly very strong and very fond of doing strongman
Speaker 1: style stunts, like hopping across a room while carrying two
Speaker 1: other men, or grabbing an overhead bar while he was
Speaker 1: on horseback and then lifting the horse up with his legs,
Speaker 1: or do not do this ever, please, putting each of
Speaker 1: his fingers into the mouth of a musket and then
Speaker 1: lifting them all up by flattening out his hand. And
Speaker 1: he was also extremely fond of dueling, which was illegal
Speaker 1: among civilians in France at this point, but tolerated within
Speaker 1: the army. At one point he reportedly fought three duels
Speaker 1: in one day while injured from the first of them.
Speaker 1: Unsurprisingly given his fondness for dueling, he was also known
Speaker 1: for having a very hot temper and for speaking very
Speaker 1: freely when he was angry. This is the kind of
Speaker 1: thing where I read this list of crazy things he
Speaker 1: did and I just want to go, what is wrong
Speaker 1: with you? Well, especially the horse thing that was probably
Speaker 1: some kind of a stunt. But yeah, especially the musket thing.
Speaker 1: Why would you do that? What is wrong with you?
Speaker 1: What is wrong with you? Like I suddenly become I
Speaker 1: don't know somebody's mom. What is wrong with you? Has
Speaker 1: has your brain been damaged? Why would you do this?
Speaker 1: But anyway, Duma joined the army during the prelude to
Speaker 1: the French Revolution so quick recamp in the late eighteenth century.
Speaker 1: Among France's three estates, which were the clergy, the nobility,
Speaker 1: and the commoners, the clergy and nobility held all the power,
Speaker 1: even though the commoners vastly outnumbered them. The nation was
Speaker 1: nearly bankrupt and the common people were facing food shortages,
Speaker 1: and the food that was available was astronomically expensive. Violence
Speaker 1: and unrest grew during this time as the commoners pushed
Speaker 1: back against poverty and oppression. The sixth Dragoons spent most
Speaker 1: of this time stationed in the countryside north of Paris,
Speaker 1: fairly removed from all of the things that were happening
Speaker 1: just to the south. Yeah, this was definitely not confined
Speaker 1: only to Paris, but they just were in a place
Speaker 1: that was a little bit off the beaten path from
Speaker 1: what was happening. The revolution really got going in seventeen
Speaker 1: eighty nine, and the face of ongoing unrest, King Louis
Speaker 1: the sixteenth summoned the Estates in General, which represented all
Speaker 1: three Estates, for a meeting that was to be held
Speaker 1: on May fifth, seventeen eighty nine, and then that June,
Speaker 1: after negotiations failed to get anywhere, the Third Estate, which
Speaker 1: represented the commoners, formed the National Assembly. They avowed to
Speaker 1: work on constitutional reforms. Revolutionaries stormed the Bastille on July
Speaker 1: fourteenth and October fifth, women march on Versailles to demand
Speaker 1: relief for the ongoing food shortages and to demand that
Speaker 1: the King and the Queen returned to Paris. We have
Speaker 1: an episode on that in the archive. In the weeks
Speaker 1: between the storming of the Bastille and the women's march
Speaker 1: on Versailles, alex Duma was finally called into action. In
Speaker 1: August seventeen eighty nine, a detachment from the six Dragoons
Speaker 1: were summoned to the defense of the town of Ville
Speaker 1: Cotre in northern France, which was being threatened by rioters.
Speaker 1: The person who called for this aid was Claude Laboret,
Speaker 1: who was the innkeeper of Lutel de le Queue in
Speaker 1: Ville Cottre. He had just been elected the head of
Speaker 1: the town's national guard, and since the town had no barracks,
Speaker 1: the dragoons who came to help had to be billeted
Speaker 1: in the homes of various people around the town. La
Speaker 1: Beret was so impressed with Duma that he invited him
Speaker 1: to stay at the inn, and that first night Dumat
Speaker 1: met Labrey's daughter, Marie Louise. She described him as quote
Speaker 1: a fine figure of a man, and they were engaged
Speaker 1: on December sixth, seventeen eighty nine, with her father giving
Speaker 1: his approval as long as they waited until Duma was
Speaker 1: promoted to sergeant to actually marry, and that promotion happened
Speaker 1: in seventeen ninety two, and they married on November twenty
Speaker 1: eighth of that year. In the intervening years, Duma remained
Speaker 1: stationed in northern France or across the border in what
Speaker 1: was then the Austrian Empire after France declared war on
Speaker 1: Austria in April of seventeen ninety two. During those years,
Speaker 1: Duma really made a name for himself through dramatic and
Speaker 1: daring exploits, including, for example, cutting off a group of
Speaker 1: Austrian soldiers that were on horseback and taking them prisoner
Speaker 1: without firing a single shot, and then donating his share
Speaker 1: of the prize from that capture to the Nation of France.
Speaker 1: He had a reputation for being a really exceptional soldier
Speaker 1: and leader, always on the side of justice and freedom.
Speaker 1: His upbringing in Sandomange probably served him really well in
Speaker 1: all of this. He had become quite the stereotypical aristocrat
Speaker 1: after moving to France with his father, but as French
Speaker 1: society reformed itself during the Revolution, he was able to
Speaker 1: drop a lot of those more aristocratic traits, draw on
Speaker 1: his more humble upbringing, and keep the respect of the
Speaker 1: soldiers from the lower and middle classes. Starting in late
Speaker 1: seventeen ninety two, Dumal was promoted up through the ranks
Speaker 1: incredibly quickly, being commissioned as a second lieutenant, then promoted
Speaker 1: to first lieutenant, then brigadier, all in a matter of months.
Speaker 1: And as that was happening, France was also expanding its
Speaker 1: military might. The Republic of France had been conquering neighboring
Speaker 1: territory and had also offered its support to other nations
Speaker 1: that wanted to fight for their own freedom, but the
Speaker 1: existing French military and the mercenaries that had been hired
Speaker 1: to supplement it weren't big enough to support all of this,
Speaker 1: so the nation had allowed the establishment of free legions,
Speaker 1: which were separate from the regular French army. One of
Speaker 1: these was the Free Legion of Americans and of the South,
Speaker 1: which was made up entirely of freemen of color. At
Speaker 1: this point in French history, people of color in France
Speaker 1: were generally referred to as Americans, whether they were from
Speaker 1: the Americas or not, and then often American colonists, regardless
Speaker 1: of their race, were also called Americans. It was a
Speaker 1: little confusing. This would later be nicknamed La le jon
Speaker 1: noir or the Black Legion. La le Genoir was started
Speaker 1: by Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint George, who naturally wanted
Speaker 1: Dumas as one of his officers. However, Dumas was already
Speaker 1: spoken for. He had joined another free legion, the Hussars
Speaker 1: of Liberty and Equality, started by Colonel Joseph Boyer, and
Speaker 1: the colonel and the Chevalier basically had a bidding war
Speaker 1: as each of them tried to lure Dumas away from
Speaker 1: the other. Dumas finally joined the lesson Noir after the
Speaker 1: chevalier promised him the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was
Speaker 1: commissioned in that legion on January tenth, seventeen ninety three,
Speaker 1: and even though Duma was technically second in command, the
Speaker 1: Chevalier wasn't all that interested in actually running things, so
Speaker 1: he mostly just left Duma to it. This legion didn't
Speaker 1: last very long, though, it was chronically underfunded, really short
Speaker 1: on supplies, and the Chevalier was suspected of some criminal activity.
Speaker 1: The legion was disbanded just a few months after Dumad
Speaker 1: joined it, But on July thirtieth, seventeen ninety three, he
Speaker 1: was made brigadier general of the French Army of the North,
Speaker 1: and then five days after that he was made the
Speaker 1: general commander in chief of the Army of the Western Pyrenees.
Speaker 1: This made him the highest ranking black man in the
Speaker 1: French Army, with tens of thousands of mostly white soldiers
Speaker 1: under his command, something that would not happen again for
Speaker 1: hundreds of years afterward. But in seventeen ninety four, Duma's
Speaker 1: fortunes started to shift. And we'll get to that after
Speaker 1: we first have a sponsor break in the seventeen nineties,
Speaker 1: alex Dema was described as the finest soldier in the
Speaker 1: world as the French Revolution morphed into the reign of Terror.
Speaker 1: He was also nicknamed Mister Humanity for pushing back against
Speaker 1: senseless violence and slaughter, and for ordering his men not
Speaker 1: to take unfair advantage of the people in the towns
Speaker 1: that they captured. He had a reputation for integrity and
Speaker 1: for making wise decisions rather than rash ones, and for
Speaker 1: being merciful as much as possible in the role of
Speaker 1: a military commander. But he was also still very stubborn.
Speaker 1: He still had a hot headed streak, and he was
Speaker 1: still pretty vocal about his opinions. In seventeen ninety four,
Speaker 1: these traits were nearly his undoing. While fighting in the
Speaker 1: Alps that January, he was ordered to capture two mountain passes,
Speaker 1: which were at that time totally impassable due to heavy
Speaker 1: snow and ice. Oh I thought this was a foolish
Speaker 1: and probably fatal course of action, so he refused to
Speaker 1: do it until the weather improved. There were also reports
Speaker 1: that he destroyed a guillotine and used it as firewood
Speaker 1: for his men, who had no other way to keep warm,
Speaker 1: and all of this raised suspicion that he was a
Speaker 1: counter revolutionary. This was in spite of the fact that
Speaker 1: his very vocal opinions had been the opposite of that
Speaker 1: the entire time. But soon he had been denounced by
Speaker 1: the local Jacobin Club, which was one of the French
Speaker 1: revolutions more radical organizations. The Committee of Public Safety, which
Speaker 1: acted as France's executive government during the Reign of Terror,
Speaker 1: summoned Dumat back to Paris, and he probably would have
Speaker 1: faced execution if he had gotten there. But before he
Speaker 1: could go, Maximilian Robespierre, who was the head of the committee,
Speaker 1: was himself beheaded. Eventually, Duma was cleared of all the
Speaker 1: charges against him, in part because he did go capture
Speaker 1: those passes once he thought it was prudent to do so.
Speaker 1: But he was moved to a lesser prestigious posting, given
Speaker 1: command of the Army of the West, where he was
Speaker 1: sent to fight against a royalist uprising. When he got there, though,
Speaker 1: he was horrified to discover that the Army of the
Speaker 1: West had shifted from fighting and uprising to terrorizing ordinary
Speaker 1: people for its own gain. It was also full of
Speaker 1: new recruits who had no military training at all and
Speaker 1: seemed to be fighting just for sport. So Duma fired
Speaker 1: the chief of staff and started reorganizing the army, training
Speaker 1: all the new recruits and trying to shape the Army
Speaker 1: of the West into an organized and efficient unit and,
Speaker 1: in his words quote remind the rank and file of
Speaker 1: a love of justice and upstanding comportment. In seventeen ninety six,
Speaker 1: Duma met Napoleon Bonaparte and his wife Josephine. Napoleon had
Speaker 1: taken command of the Army of Italy, and Duma served
Speaker 1: under him during Napoleon's Italian campaign, and although there are
Speaker 1: documents in which Napoleon described Duma with respect and admiration,
Speaker 1: almost immediately, the two two men did not get along.
Speaker 1: The central issue was one of the things that had
Speaker 1: gotten Duma into trouble during the Reign of Terror. Duma
Speaker 1: believed in fighting for liberty, not for conquest, and thought
Speaker 1: that civilians should be actively protected during warfare, but Napoleon's
Speaker 1: outlook was increasingly focused on conquest and dominance. During the
Speaker 1: Italian campaign, Duma was part of the successful siege of Mantua,
Speaker 1: but when Napoleon rode up his report after it was
Speaker 1: all over, he praised every other officer involved except for Duma.
Speaker 1: Duma was really angry about this, and angry that instead
Speaker 1: of being given a division of his own to command,
Speaker 1: he was placed under another officer that he didn't get
Speaker 1: along with. In spite of all of that, as the
Speaker 1: French army tried to drive the Austrians out of Italy
Speaker 1: in the early months of seventeen ninety seven, Dumat was
Speaker 1: so persistent and so effective that the Austrians nicknamed him
Speaker 1: the Black Devil. In March of that year, he was
Speaker 1: injured in battle after his horse was shot out from
Speaker 1: under him. He was given leave to go home and recover,
Speaker 1: and he stayed at Ville Cotree with his wife and
Speaker 1: their daughter. He'd been able to make trips home over
Speaker 1: the years, and they had had two children by this point,
Speaker 1: but one had died of an illness or accident. While
Speaker 1: Duma was fighting in the Italian campaign. In seventeen ninety eight,
Speaker 1: Duma once again joined Napoleon's army, this time to fight
Speaker 1: in Napoleon's Egyptian campaign. This was Napoleon's attempt to cut
Speaker 1: off Britain from its colonies in India during the Napoleonic Wars,
Speaker 1: by taking control of Egypt, and during this campaign, Napoleon
Speaker 1: found another reason to dislike Duma. We mentioned earlier in
Speaker 1: the show about how Duma was very tall and was
Speaker 1: considered to be extremely well built and attractive, and when
Speaker 1: Duma and Napoleon rode in together, people assumed that Duma
Speaker 1: was the one in command. Napoleon took this very personally.
Speaker 1: I know it caused all sorts of legitimate trouble, but
Speaker 1: I have to laugh at the hubris involved uh Duma's
Speaker 1: opinions and temper continued to get him in trouble in Egypt.
Speaker 1: In addition to the issues of integrity and rules of
Speaker 1: warfare that Duma had carried all through his time in
Speaker 1: the military, he was frustrated that Napoleon apparently had no
Speaker 1: plan to abolish slavery in Egypt. As always, Duma was
Speaker 1: vocal about this frustration, and on July ninth, seventeen ninety eight,
Speaker 1: Napoleon sent someone to spy on a meeting among Duma
Speaker 1: and other officers. After getting a report back that Duma
Speaker 1: was bad mouthing him at this meeting, Napoleon threatened to
Speaker 1: shoot him. On August first, seventeen ninety eight, Napoleon suffered
Speaker 1: a major defeat at the Battle of the Nile, also
Speaker 1: known as the Battle of abukir Bay. Admiral Horatio Nelson
Speaker 1: and the British Navy destroyed nearly all of the French fleet,
Speaker 1: and that cut off Napoleon's army in Egypt. The French
Speaker 1: military and Egypt started to crumble and withdraw Duma fought
Speaker 1: off an uprising in Cairo before trying to return home
Speaker 1: to France, but he was shipwrecked on the way off
Speaker 1: the coast of Taranto and Aples, which had fallen to insurgents.
Speaker 1: He was taken prisoner and kept in a dungeon for
Speaker 1: almost two years. While he was imprisoned, Duma's wife had
Speaker 1: no idea where he was or if he was even alive.
Speaker 1: She wrote numerous letters to everyone she could think of
Speaker 1: in the government, trying to get someone to find him and,
Speaker 1: if he was alive, to bring him home, but she
Speaker 1: had trouble getting anyone's attention. This wasn't just because of
Speaker 1: Napoleon's ongoing animosity against her husband. France was at war
Speaker 1: and had other issues to deal with. The first diplomatic
Speaker 1: efforts to track down Duma finally started just days before
Speaker 1: the Coup of eighteen Blumiere, which began on November ninth,
Speaker 1: seventeen ninety nine. This coup effectively ended the French Revolution
Speaker 1: and established Napoleon Bonaparte as the government's first consul. It
Speaker 1: also meant that nearly everyone Marie Luise had contacted to
Speaker 1: try to find her husband was removed from the government
Speaker 1: during the coup. As his wife was trying to find
Speaker 1: help for him, Duma was also trying to negotiate for
Speaker 1: his own release from prison, but without any success. Once
Speaker 1: he finally was released at the end of eighteen oh one,
Speaker 1: it was part of an armistice between France and Naples,
Speaker 1: which included a deal for all French prisoners of war
Speaker 1: to be repatriated to France. By this point, those twenty
Speaker 1: months in a dungeon had taken an enormous toll. Duma
Speaker 1: was in very poor health. He was partially paralyzed and
Speaker 1: deaf in one ear, and extremely sick. He was also
Speaker 1: denied his pension and back pay for his time in
Speaker 1: the service, and was only able to get home to
Speaker 1: Ville Cotterret because another officer gave him money out of
Speaker 1: his own pocket. The Duma family fell into extreme poverty.
Speaker 1: But on July twenty fourth, eighteen oh two, Alex Dumont
Speaker 1: and Marie Luise Elizabeth le Bret welcome to son Alexandre,
Speaker 1: who Alex absolutely doted on for the rest of his life.
Speaker 1: Along with doting on his wife. They really seemed to
Speaker 1: love each other very intensely out their marriage. Their personal
Speaker 1: poverty was not the only issue affecting the Duma family.
Speaker 1: Slavery had been abolished in French territory during the French Revolution,
Speaker 1: and people of color had also been granted full citizenship
Speaker 1: rights in seventeen ninety four, but in eighteen oh two,
Speaker 1: Napoleon reinstated slavery, and after naming himself Emperor of France
Speaker 1: two years later, he started rolling back those other racial reforms.
Speaker 1: He started ejecting black members of the military and enforcing
Speaker 1: segregation and banning inter racial marriages. Retired military officers of
Speaker 1: color were prohibited from living in Paris or the surrounding area,
Speaker 1: and there was a white's only zone that was created
Speaker 1: around Paris. All of us included the Duma Home, which
Speaker 1: forced the family to have to seek special permission to
Speaker 1: continue living there. For the next few years, the Duma
Speaker 1: family struggled, Alex at least somewhat recovered his health, although
Speaker 1: he never regained the kind of vigor that he had
Speaker 1: had before his imprisonment. He died on February twenty seventh,
Speaker 1: eighteen oh six, at the age of forty four. The
Speaker 1: likely cause of death was stomach cancer, possibly from being
Speaker 1: poisoned while he was imprisoned, but Napoleon's attitude towards Duma
Speaker 1: didn't really change after his death. Marie Luise was denied
Speaker 1: a widow's pension, and the young Alexandra later wrote that
Speaker 1: he was barred from attending French military school or civil college.
Speaker 1: Long after the general's death, a statue was put up
Speaker 1: in his honor, but it was later destroyed by the Nazis.
Speaker 1: As we said at the top of the show, Alex's
Speaker 1: life sounds like it could have been one of his
Speaker 1: son's books. Specifically, alexand Le Duma cited a number of
Speaker 1: inspirations for his famous work The Count of Monte Cristo,
Speaker 1: but the character of Edmund Dante was undoubtedly influenced by
Speaker 1: his father, particularly in his wrongful imprisonment. That work has
Speaker 1: similarities to an earlier, shorter work called Simply George, whose
Speaker 1: main character is described as Mulato. More on Duma's work
Speaker 1: next time, and if you want more about the general,
Speaker 1: Tom Rice's The Black Count, which came out in twenty
Speaker 1: twelve and won the twenty thirteen Pulitzer Prize for Biography
Speaker 1: or Autobiography along with other awards, is a great read.
Speaker 1: It has so much more detail about all the particulars
Speaker 1: of Duma's upbringing and military service, plus a lot more
Speaker 1: details on all the many, many things that were going
Speaker 1: on in French history and the French Revolution and the
Speaker 1: rise of Napoleon during all of this. An announcement also
Speaker 1: came out in twenty fourteen that John Legend's production company
Speaker 1: bought the film rights to this book, So maybe there
Speaker 1: will be a movie I would watch that I would too,
Speaker 1: especially because I think the clothes would be fantastic that
Speaker 1: they would. Thanks so much for joining us on this Saturday.
Speaker 1: If you'd like to send us a note, our email
Speaker 1: addresses History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com, and you can
Speaker 1: subscribe to the show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.