Charlotte-Adélaïde Dard, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetCharlotte-Adélaïde Dard
French author
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Paris, Île-de-France, France
About Charlotte-Adélaïde Dard
- Charlotte-Adélaïde Dard (September 14, 1788 – November 2, 1862) was a French writer best known for La Chaumière africaine ou Histoire d'une famille française jetée sur la côte occidentale de l'Afrique à la suite du naufrage de la frégate La Méduse, an autobiographical account of events following a shipwreck off the west coast of Africa.The daughter of Charles Picard, an infantry captain, she was born Charlotte-Adélaïde Picard in Paris.
- She travelled with her family to Senegal on the frigate Méduse in 1816 one year after England returned control of the country to France.
- Due to errors by the ship's captain, Méduse was wrecked off the coast of Mauritania.
- The family was able to escape the sinking frigate in a lifeboat which eventually reached the coast and, after walking for several days, they reached Saint-Louis.
- Her father lost his French civil service position in Senegal and the family was forced to support itself by growing food and harvesting cotton on a plantation that her father had purchased.In 1820, she married Jean Dard, a teacher who had taken responsibility for the Picard children following their father's death.
- The couple moved to Bligny-lès-Beaune in France where her husband had been hired as a teacher and secretary for the town.
- Dard published her account of the events surrounding the shipwreck in 1824; an English translation was published in 1827.
- The couple returned to Senegal in 1832.Dard died in Saint-Louis at the age of 64.
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