Outliers, people out of the ordinary who sometimes do
extraordinary things interest me. I particularly like discovering people who do
not fit various historical narratives and writing about them. This has been one
of the major themes through out my published writing career. I love the detective nature of it as these are
people who exist in the historical records but who are often overlooked because
historians view the world through specific lenses (EH Carr was the man who
developed the notion that all history is subjective and to understand what was truly going on you
must first understand the lenses you are viewing it through. The time line objective view of history is a 19th century Leopold von Ranke idea. Carr was a Marxist by the
way).
The Lady Soldier which I co-wrote with Kate Allan (the agent
Kate Nash) was the story of a woman who becomes a successful soldier during the
Peninsula Campaign. Kate developed the hero and I was responsible for the heroine.
A publisher, John Hale promised to look at it but he didn’t hold out much hope
as he wasn’t sure such women existed. Cue a research note at the end of the
manuscript detailing real life women soldiers who were being overlooked and my
author note habit was born.
I absolutely loved writing His Unsuitable Viscountess
as it allowed me to research women
business-owners in the Regency (my editor expressed doubts). I loved discovering the two highest paid bankers
in the 1820s were women – Sarah Childs of Childs of Bank (aka Lady Jersey of
Almack’s fame -did the Lady Patronesses actually need Brumnell's input or was it a useful fig leaf?) and Harriot Coutts of Coutts bank ( where the Royal Family still banks). All in all there were 20 women who held licenses to print money in
the Regency times. I discovered other businesswomen as well. Of those who
married, most had sons and passed the business on to them. Over time, the
narrative gets altered and the women are subtly erased until people believe such women never truly existed.
When
I first wrote Taming His Viking Woman, the evidence was circumstantial that
such women warriors existed. I was pretty sure they must have. Then they did DNA testing
and discovered that women warriors did exist in the Viking age and were not a product of some writer's fantasy.
At the moment, there is a strand of argument in historical
romance circles that People of Colour shouldn’t be there in starring roles as it is unrealistic.
That no POC was a member of the First Estate, if you will and they all led
miserable, horrible lives. What utter balderdash and nonsense.
There are a few outliers,
probably more than the ones I mention), many who have been rendered invisible because their lives don’t
fit the historical narrative or lenses of the writer. Simply because people believe the received and skewed historical narrative doesn't make them right.
Off the top of my
head to combat nay-sayer – John Perkins (the first black British
Naval Officer) is from the Georgian period. He won the most prizes of any naval
officer in the Georgian period except for Nelson. He was mostly
based in the Caribbean and was particularly effective against he Americans. His Naval Chronicle obituary states ‘ he annoyed the
enemy more than any other officer, by his repeated feats of gallantry and the immense
number of prizes he won.’ The records of what happened to his substantial
estate are lost and he never married. When I last looked Naval officers were members of the First Estate. 2. Nathaniel Wells, the High Sherriff in
Wales in 1818 and friend to the Prince of Wales . His first wife was the daughter of the chaplain to George II. His second wife was related to William
Wilberforce's wife. The son of a slave, he inherited
his money from his father and was extremely wealthy through sugar plantations. 3. Cesar Picton, a man who rose from being a slave
to a wealthy coal merchant in Kingston upon Thames. His estate when he died
included 2 acres of lands, ships, shops and a wharf. 4. Equiano aka Gustav
Vassa who made his first fortune in shipping and his second from being a best
selling author. He marries a white woman and leaves his surviving daughter a
sizable fortune.
.JPG/300px-Alexandre_Dumas_(1762-1806).JPG) |
| Protrait of Thomas-Alexandre Dumas from Wikipedia |
There were over 10,000 people of colour living in Britain in the 18th
century and not all in abject poverty. It is just that few people are actually
interested in researching them as they don't fit the narrative and so they get overlooked. Or their race and colour is referred to
obliquely and people forget or prefer to gloss over. Let me put it this way -- Wellington probably never raised an officer from the ranks as Bernard Cornwell would have it but the Prince Regent did regularly dine with the son of a slave -- Nathaniel Wells.
I could go on about France which is possibly somewhat more
interesting for the historical romance novelist. Alexandre Dumas’s father Thomas-AlexandreDumas Davy de la Pailleterie was a high ranking general in Napoleon’s army. Thomas-Alexandre
was the son of a Marquis and his mother an African slave. And his entire life is fascinating. There was
a habit of French planters, particularly men like the Marquis to send their natural sons (if you will) to be
educated in France as they were immediately freed once on French soil (until
Napoleon brought back slavery). People
of Colour were very involved in the arts. Gericault the artist had a favourite
Haitian model who was very wealthy in his own right. And of course, you have
the whole Haitian and Santa Domingo history.
However these few examples should be enough to prove that there were wealthy people of
colour, people who fit the definition of First Estate during this period. It is simply that htey have been overlooked for years because we view history through certain lenses.
.jpg/300px-JEAN_LOUIS_TH%C3%89ODORE_G%C3%89RICAULT_-_La_Balsa_de_la_Medusa_(Museo_del_Louvre%2C_1818-19).jpg) |
| Gercault's Raft of the Medusa with his favourite model, waving at the top, from Wikipedia |
And I have promise myself not to ask why there are so few Jewish set Regencies and Victorians when you have the Rothchilds, Sebag-Montefiores and other prominent families making such positive contributions to British society.
Personally I love researching historical outliers and hope
more people will actually try to write stories based on these people or at
least stop deriding things as fantasy when they are historical fact.
In other news:
I sold my 28th novel to Harlequin Historical, A
DEAL WITH HER REBEL VIKING. It will be published n December.
Michelle Styles writes warm, witty and intimate historical romances
in a wide range of time periods for Harlequin Historical. Her most recent was
Sent as the Viking’s Bride. You can learn more about Michelle and her books on
www.michellestyles.co.uk
