A French master swordsman of African descent

by AuntWacky1976

Hello. Some years ago after diving into the Google rabbit hole, searching for interesting tidbits of the Victorian era, I ran across an interesting article about African/black fighters and swordsmen through the centuries. One in particular caught my eye, and I was hoping to learn more about him and his daughter.

His name is Jean-Louis Michel. From what I've found, he was the son of a Haitian slave and a white man. (Of course, back in 1785 Haiti was called St. Domingue.)

Anyhoo, his father loved him, educated him, and it turned out he was a fencing prodigy. Said to be merciful, (in a time where duels were the norm, he never killed if he could help it) but undefeated, he is the founding father of the French school of fencing, and his best student was his own daughter.

Unfortunately, I have been unable to find her name or anymore details about her. Would any of you be able to shed light on that, or share any more details of Mr. Michel himself? I'd be very interested. Thank you!

gerardmenfin

You are lucky! There is a microhistory project at the Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 dedicated to the biographies of people buried in the cemetaries of Montpellier, and Jean-Louis is one of the people studied. His biography (in French) is available here. Now, the main sources used in the project are two biographies written in 1866 and 1883, and, as the project's author say, it is difficult to tell the legend from the truth.

Here's a short summary of his life according to these texts:

  • Born in 1785 or 1787 in Saint-Domingue from an "unknown father and Adélaïde, a free negress"
  • Fostered in 1793 in a protestant family in Montauban
  • Enlisted in a platoon of "Troop Children" (Enfants de Troupe) at the 31st Infantry Regiment. Described as "round face, black eyes, blunt nose, black hair and eyebrows, mulatto". He's short for his age (1.56m).
  • In May 1798, he leaves France to participate in Napoleon's Campaign in Egypt
  • His military career takes him throughout Europe, and he fights in many Napoleonic campains (including Italy, Spain, and Russia) and in about 40 battles (!) until 1815.
  • During the campaign in Spain, he meets a Spanish woman, Josefa, who becomes his common-law wife.
  • Initially a Drummer, his talent at fencing is recognized and he eventually becames a Master of Arms, earning a Légion d'Honneur in 1814.
  • In 1816, while still in the army, he opens a fencing hall in Montpellier
  • He leaves the army in 1829. He is now extremely famous in the fencing world, training many masters. He opens a larger fencing hall due to his success. However, he never wrote anything about his work or about his life.
  • At 66 (or 67), he finally marries Josefa in 1853.
  • Josefa dies in Januay 1865. Almost blind, he vows to follow her, and dies in November.

Now what about his daughter, whose presence is only mentioned in passing in the biographies cited above?

After some serious digging in the archives (birth/marriage/death, census records, and notary records), the project's authors have come to the conclusion that she may have been named Geneviève Louise Cruchant and that she was probably Michel's illegitimate daughter, born in 1827 from a liaison he had with a woman named Marguerite Cruchant when his regiment was stationed in Lorraine between 1820 and 1828. He seems to have got his daughter back to live with him in Montpellier when she was a teenager, and he then trained her to be a fencer. He is certainly oddly present in the records related to this woman and her children! She married twice, the second time with a doctor.

There are more details about her in the text, but nothing groundbreaking, unfortunately

Sources