Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George, has been lionized for more than 150 years, for good reasons: he was a famous Black man in 18th century France, both as a talented musician and as a great swordsman. He absolutely deserves his modern fame. However, as often happens with minor historical characters for whom information is poorly available, it is difficult to tell the legend from the historical truth.

Saint-George left many pieces of music but few personal writings except some formal letters and a political pamphlet. Information about him is derived from a handful of more or less direct testimonies, some press articles, and official records. As early as 1840, Saint-George's life was turned into an epic 4-volume historical novel by polygraph Roger de Beauvoir, who also wrote a musical comedy to go with it (multimedia was already a thing). A lot of Saint-George's legend comes from this work, which mixed some facts and a lot of fiction.

While there have been many biographical portraits of Saint-George since Beauvoir, all suffer from the same problem: a dearth of primary sources. There is enough to get a general outline of the life trajectory of that exceptional man, but there are still many, many blanks in Saint-George's life. These blanks have been filled with delight by novel writers and memorialists, and biographers have added their own (more or less educated) speculations. In the end, figuring out what is true (ie based on actual records) what is speculation (ie something not based on record but plausible based on circumstances), and what is fiction (ie something completely made up) is quite difficult.

Beauvoir claimed that he derived his information from oral sources and that he was more reliable than previous biographical notices, but he still wrote that Saint-George, when a child, was in a knife fight with Toussaint Bréda, future Toussaint-Louverture... (Saint-George was born in Guadeloupe, not Saint-Domingue). Alexandre Dumas, in his memoirs, has written very colourful pages about the antagonism between Saint-George and his father, the General Thomas Alexandre Dumas, but Dumas barely knew his father, who died when he was a 4-year old. British fencer Henry Angelo, who met Saint-George in Paris in 1773 and later in London in 1787 and 1789-1790, has left memoirs that has been mined by biographers, but he somehow managed to get all the dates wrong. Actress Louise Fusil, in her memoirs (1841), provides short but adorable reminiscences of Saint-George, whom she seems to have worshipped to some extent (enough for biographers to claim that she was Saint-George's lover, something she absolutely does not say).

The London sojourns

The question of Saint-George's abolitionist activities goes back to his two sojourns in London, a short one in 1787 and a longer one in 1789-1790. A famous swordsman and musician, he made quite an impression, notably during a series of exhibition matches where he crossed swords with the Prince of Wales, and famously, with the Chevalier d'Eon, who was then living in England as a woman. According to the newspapers, the Prince paid "very handsome compliments" and gave Saint-George a pair of pistols. A portrait of him was made by American painter Mather Brown, which is the only portrait known of him and the one used everywhere. Saint-George returned to London early 1789, and, again, he participated in fencing exhibitions, played music, hung out with the Prince of Wales, and enjoyed London life. One incident was reported in the press on both sides of the Channel: in February 1790, he was attacked in Greenwich by a thief who threatened him with a pistol, and, after knocking down the man, he was assaulted by four other men, that he also dispatched. All the articles mentioned that "he had received himself but a few contusions, which were not sufficient to prevent his attendance on Sunday night at a fashionable party!" (The British Mercury, 6 March 1790). Saint-George's reputation was also that of a badass. He was back in France in June 1790.

Why did Saint-George go to England in 1787? According to Angelo (whose testimony was off by 8 years!), this was due to a lack of funds, as Saint-George had lost his job in 1785 after the death of his first protector, Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans. Gainot (in Noël, 2011) believes that this was "probably" after some trouble involving a woman. Because little is actually known about Saint-George's activities in London, biographers have attempted to clear the "mystery" with two strands of speculation (summarized by Banat, 2006).

One theory, first formulated by Roger de Beauvoir in his historical novel in 1840, is that Saint-George was in London on behalf of Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, the son of the late Duke, and who had taken Saint-George under his wing. The 30-year old Duke saw himself as a potential heir to the crown should something bad happened in France (like a revolution) and he cozied up to the Prince of Wales, aka "Prinny", future George IV, who was struggling with the "madness" of his father. According to that theory, Philippe asked his protégé to come with him to London in 1787, so that the famous, fascinating, and exotic Chevalier de Saint-George would entertain the London high society and notably the Prince of Wales (hence the publicity stunt: the Negro vs the Cross-Dresser).

The situation may have been slightly different in 1789: Saint-George was in London in March and the Duke arrived in October. Officially, Philippe was sent to London by Louis XVI on a diplomatic mission, which allowed the King to keep his troublesome cousin out of France, and allowed Philippe to evade suscipicion after the events of 5 and 6 October 1789. Saint-George, according to Angelo, enjoyed a lavish lifestyle during that second stay, which gives credence to the idea that he was sponsored by the Duke. He did the usual fencing/music/socialite activities and spent time with the Prince of Wales.

->Continued: An abolitionist mission?