Liberty, equality, fraternity…for some!

When Alex Dumas returned to revolutionary France in June 1801, after spending two years in an Italian prison, he returned to a different country.

 

For years Dumas had served in a military where he was judged on his skill and bravery and not on the color of his skin.

 

Now Napoleon was in control and his “financial backers” had decided they needed the wealth the sugar plantations in the colonies, such as Saint Domingue, could produce to keep the military/country going.  The plantations needed black slaves, so France could no longer support a color blind society.  “Revolutionary ideas simply cost too much”

 

In Dec 1799 Napoleon proclaimed “The regime of the French colonies is to be determined by special laws.”  There goes equality.  In the same month he began building a new armada which would be sent to Saint Domingue to “re-conquer” the colony, destroy any black military/power figures and force blacks back into slavery to support the sugar plantations.

 

Back in France, because Dumas was black he needed a special permit to live in town with his family.  His town, Villers-Cotterets, was part of the zone forbidden to retired men of color.  Too close to Paris.

 

Black officers were being deported and Dumas had to pull strings with former army comrades so he was able to stay in France with his family.

 

His wife, Marie-Louise, was white so in the current day he would not have been able to marry her.  No mixed marriages.

 

Napoleon refused to give him a military assignment and he refused to give him a pension.  The family was destitute.

 

.The black & white French had fought a revolution to get rid of a king but they end up with an emperor, Napoleon.  Was it all worth it?