earliest European musician/composer, of full or partial African descent, to receive widespread critical acclaim; becoming concertmaster and (supposed to have been) conductor of the Paris symphonic institution, no less. This achievement was rendered all the more iconic, having been attained in a particularly uncertain, turbulent time in French (and world) history. He published numerous string quartets, sonatas, and symphonies. In addition to his many violin concertos, Saint-Georges also composed several stage works (plays, comedies, ballet), a rondeau for two violins, an adagio in F-minor (for piano), a harpsichord quartet, and several operas — he even composed a children’s opera, “Aline et Dupré, ou le marchand de marrons,” G.204. Early life Joseph Bologne was born in Baillif, Basse-Terre as the son of a planter and former councillor at the parliament of Metz, (1711–1774) and Nanon, his wife's 16-year-old enslaved African servant of Senegalese origin, who served as her personal maid. Bologne was legally married to Elisabeth Mérican (1722–1801) but acknowledged his son by Nanon and gave him his surname. His father, called "de Saint-Georges" after one of his plantations in Guadeloupe, was a commoner until 1757, when he acquired the title of Gentilhomme ordinaire de la chambre du roi (Gentleman of the King's Chamber). The younger Saint-Georges was ineligible under French law for titles of nobility due to his African mother. Since 1685, a Code Noir had been the law in France and its colonial possessions. On 5 April 1762, King Louis XV decreed that "Nègres et gens de couleur" (blacks and people of color) must register with the clerk of the Admiralty within two months. Many leading ”Enlightenment” thinkers (like Voltaire) argued that Africans and their descendants were inferior to White Europeans. These racist legal bindings and attitudes towards mixed-race citizens made it virtually impossible for Joseph Bologne to marry any woman at his level of society; however, he is known to have had at least one long-term, serious and romantic relationship. Misled by Roger de Beauvoir's 1840 romantic novel Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges, most of his biographers confused Joseph's father with Jean de Boullonges, Controller-General of Finances between 1757 and 1759. This led to the erroneous spelling of Saint-Georges' family name as "Boulogne", persisting to this day, even in records in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. In 1753, his father took Joseph, aged seven, to France for his education, installed him in a boarding school, and returned to Guadeloupe.