Amusingly, it's also inspired by the life of the writer's mixed race black father, who in the 1700s became the highest ranking black general in the west not to be surpassed until the American generals in the 1990s and supposedly attracted the jealousy of Napolean (See "The Black Count").
This is one of those I should have known better moments. But I have never put together Alexander Dumas the author being related (son of) to Thomas-Alexander Dumas of Haiti/France despite them both being French, mix-race and overlapping in time. Learning about Thomas-Alexander Dumas in context of Haiti and the French revolution vs the context of reading Alexander Dumas I just never thought of it.