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Nyx_Valentine t1_ir0p17m wrote

Would there be any way for a black person in France to have any form of status in the mid to late 1700s? (Auvergne, France, in case the area of France matters.)

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kaysea112 t1_ir0v93y wrote

Thomas-Alexandre Dumas.

Was a French general for Napoleon. But he is half and born in haitii. His father a French aristocrat and his mother a slave.

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calijnaar t1_ir6hvaf wrote

Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, is another example of a son of a French planter and an enslaved African woman. He did suffer from racial discrimination, but I would not say he did not have any form of status. He is the first known classical composer with African ancestry, and he became a succesful conductor. However, when he was proposed as the conductor of the Paris opera, this was denied after a petition of the opera singers to the queen asking her to prevent this. He later fought in the first all-black regiment in European history, the Légion St-Georges during the revolutionary wars. (There's an excellent YoU're Dead To Me episode about him, if you're interested)

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PhilHeller t1_ir6jm7p wrote

I read in "les mondes de l'esclavage" (a sum on slavery that was published last year in France) that 90% of black people in XVIIIth century France were based in Paris (and especially in the aristocratic neighborhoods). Auvergne being a pretty remote region at the time, it is unlikely. However it is not impossible.

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