Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, born enslaved in Saint-Domingue, dies at 43

Thomas-Alexandre Dumas died at Villers-Cotterêts in France on 26 February 1806, aged 43. He was born in 1762 at La Guinaudée near Jérémie, in Saint-Domingue, to Marie-Cessette Dumas, an enslaved African woman, and the Marquis Davy de la Pailleterie, the man who owned her. His father sold her and three of her children before sailing for France, then brought the boy over in 1776 and had him educated. He took his mother’s name, enlisted as a private, and by 1793 was a general of division commanding French armies. Napoleon left him two years in an Italian prison; he came out broken, poor, and was refused a pension. His son wrote The Count of Monte Cristo.