Soldiers of Uncertain Rank - The West India Regiments in British Imperial Culture

The West India Regiments were an anomalous presence in the British Army. Raised in the late eighteenth-century Caribbean in an act of military desperation, their rank-and-file were overwhelmingly men of African descent, initially enslaved. As such, the regiments held a unique but ambiguous place in the British Army and British Empire until their disbandment in 1927. Soldiers of Uncertain Rank brings together the approaches of cultural, imperial and military history in new and illuminating ways to show how the image of these regiments really mattered. This image shaped perceptions in the Caribbean societies in which they were raised and impacted on how they were deployed there and in Africa. By examining the visual and textual representation of these soldiers, this book uncovers a complex, under-explored and illuminating figure that sat at the intersection of nineteenth-century debates about slavery and freedom; racial difference; Britishness; savagery and civilisation; military service and heroism.

Product details

• Authors: David Lambert, David (University of Warwick) Lambert
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.06.2024
• EAN: 9781009464413
• ISBN: 978-1-0-0946441-3
• No. of pages: 262
• Series: Critical Perspectives on Empire
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, British Empire, HISTORY / Military / General, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Colonialism & Post-Colonialism, HISTORY / Social History, military history, Social & cultural history, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Slavery, HISTORY / Caribbean & West Indies / General, HISTORY / Africa / West, c 1800 to c 1900, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, Caribbean islands, Colonialism & imperialism, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Social and cultural history, Colonialism and imperialism, African History, History of the Americas, West Africa, Slavery & abolition of slavery, Slavery and abolition of slavery, Relating to people of the African diasporas / heritage