fuckyeahhistorycrushes:

Alexandre Dumas père (24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870) was a French writer and author of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. His father served as a general in Napoleon’s army, and his paternal grandmother a slave in Haiti. It was his mother’s stories of his father’s legacy that inspired his adventurous novels. Despite Alexandre Dumas’ success and aristocratic background, his being of mixed race affected him all his life. In 1843 he wrote a short novel, Georges, that addressed some of the issues of race and the effects of colonialism. He once remarked to a man who insulted him about his mixed-race background:

“My father was a mulatto, my grandfather was a Negro, and my great-grandfather a monkey. You see, Sir, my family starts where yours ends.”