War of 1812 - Second West India Regiment Unit Completed

This unit has yellow facings and could thus deputise for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th or 7th battalion of this regiment!

I really like the poses in this unit and the sculpting is great on the facial details too, so that they really look like (African) West Indian soldiers and not just white men painted with dark flesh!

I read some interesting stuff online the other night about the American national anthem being racist, because the guy who wrote it, Francis Scott Key, included apparent references to black soldiers fighting for the British in both this regiment and a battalion of "colonial" Royal Marines. Many of these troops were freed American slaves and thus anathema to the writer, who as a lawyer had, amongst other things, prosecuted runaway slaves!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Like the Southerners 50 years later, the idea of armed black soldiers in a "land of the free" run on slavery was NOT something that the Americans of that time saw as a true reflection of the Constitution.

Anyway, here are the pictures of my "hireling and slave" unit! Their Regimental Colour is my on creation...basically a bog standard yellow British regimental flag to match their facing colour with Roman numeral II in the wreath and the words "West India Regt." added.

Basically, that concludes all the War of 1812 units I currently own. I have a couple of packs of Knuckleduster figures coming from Caliver in the UK - 6 Glengarry Light Infantry and 6 US Infantry - to add a sixth element to the two units of each that currently only have 5. I probably wont bother doing anything with the W India units - they can stay at 5 elements each!