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

The American historian Tom Reiss wrote The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo, a biography of General Thomas Alexandre Dumas. General Dumas was a skilled general in the French Revolutionary Wars and in the early Napoleonic Wars. General Dumas was the father of the French Writer Alexandre Dumas. Reiss believes the life story of General Dumas heavily influenced the literature of Alexander Dumas. I have never read the works of Alexander Dumas. A reader will get more out of the book if one is familiar with the works of Alexander Dumas, but the book is still readable if one has not read it, which I have not. General Dumas was born in present-day Haiti. His mother was an enslaved woman of African descent. His father was a White French Nobleman who came to Colonial Haiti to live financially off his younger brother, who was a successful plantation owner and less successful slave trader. Thomas Dumas’s father took him to France, where he entered training to become a French Officer. When the French Revolution happened, he embraced the cause of the ideals of the French Revolution. Reiss does a beautiful job covering the life and times of General Thomas Alexandre Dumas. Reiss does an excellent job covering the changing status of Black people in France and the French Empire, mainly in Colonial Haiti from King Louis XIV until Napoleonic times. Reiss does an excellent job giving context for the French Revolution and the countries that General Dumas traveled to during their career as a general. The book has maps, a bibliography, and an index. The book has a section of notes. The book has a section on notes on names. I enjoyed Tom Reiss’ The Black Count.