Super fascinating bio of the novelist Alexandre Dumas's father. He was an outstanding figure--born to an enslaved woman, his white father took him to Paris to receive a gentleman's education. He joined the military just before the French Revolution and quickly rose through the ranks to become a top general, leading military excursions alongside Napoleon in Italy and Egypt.

I was really surprised by the details of race relations at the time of the French revolution. For a short time, French patriots took the call to liberty and fraternity seriously and led the charge towards abolition. (When solicited to join this movement, George Washington of course declined.) But when Napoleon crowned himself emperor, all progress was lost: he imposed strict apartheid laws within France, stripped educated and decorated Black soldiers of their military ranks, and reinstated slavery across the colonies. Dumas, a titled 4-star general, was no longer allowed to live in his Parisian home and his widow was denied her pension.

I read this book as a read-along, and that added a lot of fun. Several people shared maps, illustrations, and other tidbits of information, so it was like an annotated version of the book :)