Saint-Georges, Joseph Bologne, chevalier de, 1745-1799

Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges; December 25, 1745, Baillif, Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe – June 10, 1799, Paris, France; son of planter George Bologne de Saint-Georges (1711–1774) and Anne, dites Nanon, his wife's 16-year-old African slave, acknowledged his son by Nanon and gave him his surname; 1753, his father took Joseph, aged seven, to France for his education; Bologne was still a student when he beat Alexandre Picard, a fencing-master in Rouen; n 1766 on graduating from the Royal Polytechnique Academy, Bologne was made a Gendarme du roi (officer of the king’s bodyguard) and a chevalier; returned to look after father's plantation in 1764; not known about Saint-Georges musical tranining; became violinist & concertmaster in 1769 for François Gossec's orchestra, Le Concert des Amateurs; Saint-Georges' first compositions, Op. I, were a set of six string quartets, among the first in France; became director of Le Concert des Amateurs, 1773; director of Paris Opera, 1776; composed several operas; in 1792 appointed colonel of Légion nationale des Américains & du midi, a new delegation of free men of color by Julien Raimond, other officer was Thomas Alexandre Dumas; imprissoned during the French Revolution but released;