Celebrating Black History Month on Long Hill

Below is my column, as submitted to the editor, that appeared in the February 2016 Sturbridge Times Magazine.

Long Hill Road celebrates Black History Month

by Richard Morchoe

It is February and time again for Black History Month. We have decided to observe it up on Long Hill, but not in the usual manner. All the civil rights pioneers and cultural icons are feted, most now post mortem, again and again. Who has not been honored in the second month celebration?

Up here on our hill, we consider ourselves an outpost of high culture. In consideration of that, we have decided to profile three men who were not merely artists, but exemplars of European civilization. Yet all three, had they been living in the American South at a certain time, would have been subject to Jim Crow laws.

It must also be observed that none of the enforcers of such statutes ever produced anything to compare with our subjects.

The work of the first name is known to everyone, or at least anyone who has gone to the movies. The Three Musketeers has been put on the big screen over 25 times and has had several animated versions. It is a novel that just cried for translation to film.

Set around the first quarter of the 17^th Century, there is little lacking in the portrayal of France and Europe in the era. There are of course, the Musketeers themselves who swashbuckle around the realm constantly crossing swords with all who serve what passed in those days for the Dark Side.

That Dark Side is represented by Cardinal Richelieu. The Cardinal was arguably the most able statesman of the age. He was also a subtle intriguer, and thus a man easy to portray as evil incarnate.

The Musketeers and their protege, d'Artagnan wish to protect the queen against the machinations of the prelate

How did it happen that the grandson of a slave came to write the quintessential French novel?

Alexandre Dumas' father had been born a slave,. The nobleman dad took his slave son to France. Since the Middle Ages, slavery had been abolished on French soil. The minute the young man stepped on Gallic ground he was free.

Dumas' dad had him educated and enlisted in the French Army. He eventually became the highest ranking black general ever in any European military. Thus the son had been born into some privilege. This is not to say he had any love for the Ancien Regime. Dad, after all, had been part of Napoleon's army.

The Three Musketeers is not pro-monarchy.

His other work, about as famous, The Count of Monte Cristo, may not have as many sword fights, but it does not lack for adventure. It begins as Napoleon is about make his last throw of the dice. A young sailor, Edmond Dantes is framed and imprisoned in a French Alcatraz, The Chateau d'If. His escape and adventures lead to fame and fortune. The tone of this novel is also anti-monarchy. No matter the politics, it's a great tale. Few writers have produced anything more French than this descendant of Africa.

When we think of Russia, maybe Putin comes to mind, or Stalin or the Gulag Archipelago. Few Americans learn too much about that nation, and my knowledge is hardly exhaustive.

So it came as a shock when I learned that the man who many consider the greatest poet in that great white north was a black man and also a descendant of slaves.

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was born into the nobility, but his great grandfather, Abram Petrovich Gannibal, had been taken into slavery. If you are going to be in bondage, there are worse fates than being raised as part of the Tsar's household. The young man was well liked by the sovereign who stood as godfather at his baptism.

Alexander was thus, despite ancestry that would be crippling in much of the world, a nobleman.

He was also a literary giant. Pushkin's influence was most recently found in a film that featured beautiful music and a story of intrigue. The movie, Amadeus, was based on his drama Mozart and Salieri.

Pushkin was no stranger to drama in his own life. The last bit of it would be a duel in which he lost his life at the age of 37. His death would lead to more literature as many Russian writers would take up the subject.

Our last personality was not famous as a writer. In fact, he is not too famous at all. Unlike Dumas he did not write about men of action, but was himself a swashbuckler.

Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges  was the son of a rich planter and his slave wife. Brought to France and well educated, he was a prodigy as a swordsman and musician. Le Chevalier conducted orchestras, commanded troops and ran a fencing school.

All these accomplishments pale in comparison to one part of his life. The man is also known as the Black Mozart. He composed operas, concertos and a symphony, all while following other pursuits as well. For the skeptical, his music is available on iTunes, Spotify and YouTube..

Up on Long Hill Road, we hope we have broadened some horizons. There is nothing wrong with putting on an Ellington CD or reciting a poem by Hughes. Still, there can be more to life.