Georges; or, The Isle of France

Dumas frequently experienced discrimination because of his part-African ancestry. Although this racism was a huge part of his life and had a large effect on his career, it was a subject on which he rarely wrote. In 1844, Dumas wrote a short novel called Georges about the title character, the son of a wealthy plantation owner, and his work to end slavery.  After Georges witnesses an act of bigotry toward his father and the other mulattos on the island where they live and work, his father sends him to Europe to be educated. Georges becomes a popular intellect in Paris and learns skills like hunting. He returns to the island and finds that the other plantation owners have forgotten who he is as well as his mulatto heritage. Taking advantage of the people's trust and his newly acquired resources, Georges leads a slave revolt. While the novel is one of Dumas' lesser-known novels, critics stress the value of the work's risky subject of slavery and bigotry at a time when racial tensions were high. Some critics even credit Georges as partially an autobiographical work. Dumas, like Georges, was part African and was often mistaken for a white man. The novel was not popular following its publishing; today, the work is read and analyzed in many African studies courses.