The Napoleonic wars were fought on a bigger scale than any conflict that had gone before. Though concentrated in Europe, their impact was global. They conjure up images of huge battles fought between armies in colourful and flamboyant uniforms. Given all this, it is unsurprising that Napoleonic-era military history still looms large in our cultural imagination.
It is the wider social and cultural effects of those wars, however, that dominates current historical research. This includes the impact of those wars on attitudes towards race.
The National Army Museum in London has recently identified the likely subject of a portrait of a black soldier in its collection as Private Thomas James. Speaking to the Guardian to mark both the identification and restoration of the portrait, curator Anna Lavelle highlighted the British army as a place of racial equality. Meanwhile, the museum’s director, Justin Maciejewski, suggests that the painting underscores the shared sense of purpose historically held by British soldiers when facing common enemies such as Napoleon.
