We have been doing an in-depth study on Napoleon Bonaparte for the last several weeks, learning lots of details from his birth to his rise to power to his Waterloo.  When we were first discussing Napoleon, the kids and I commented that the actor/interpreter at Colonial Williamsburg, who portrayed Lafayette and dubbed my son "the young historian", would do a good job portraying Napoleon.  I don't know why, but we could easily imagine him in the character. Maybe it's because of his French accent.

Anyway, in the course of our studying Napoleon's numerous battles as his empire increasingly spread across Europe, I thought it would be interesting to see some actual pictures of his campaign.  Of course there was no photography then, but there are reenactors today.  And reenacting has been in the forefront of my mind since visiting Colonial Williamsburg last August. After all, one of Colonial Williamsburg's goals is to make history come alive through experience. I decided to research Napoleonic reenactments.  

Wow!  I found some interesting stuff to show the kids!  Reenactors in Europe have been in the middle of the 200th anniversary of Napoleon's various campaigns. Men from all over Europe arrive in costume, with artillery to reenact the campaigns. And who should they invite from America to portray Napoleon?  None other than the actor who portrays the Marquis de Lafayette from Colonial Williamsburg, who we thought could do Napoleon.  Apparently this actor/interpreter/historian enjoys portraying Napoleon in his free time!  My kids especially enjoyed one piece of trivia we had read about these reenactments.  According to the European news sources, the actor/interpreter does an excellent job portraying Napoleon (we can believe that) and is an excellent horseman (we can believe that from seeing him gallop his horse through CW), unlike Napoleon, who was known to fall off of  horses during his campaigns.  I don't know how much validity there is to Napoleon falling off of his horse since we haven't read about it in any of our books.  But it was certainly amusing! 

Apparently this actor/interpreter has also portrayed Napoleon on the History Channel.  I know my kids would really enjoy seeing him portray Napoleon, and a teacher/mom uses anything at her disposal to inspire learning and maintain the interest. (Especially when my kids quickly decided they didn't like Napoleon after reading about him and I feared that any future lessons were forever doomed.  It's only been this actor/interpreter who has livened things up a bit!) I've been checking the tv listings at the History Channel for anything Napoleonic.  If I find any shows to tape my kids will have fun looking for him, and perhaps learn more about Napoleon!

Here are some great Napoleon reenactment photos and videos.  My kids enjoyed seeing these as they made the battles they had read about more realistic.

Photos from the Battle of Austerlitz-Napoleon's greatest victory

Photos from the Battle of Borodino-impressive pyrotechnics!

Video from the Battle of Borodino-great epic music!

Video from the Battle of Waterloo-old timey with great music. More reenactment photos and some history are within the site.

Then at Poplar Forest, Thomas Jefferson's other home, I discovered a great on-line video of Thomas Jefferson (whom we met in 2004 at CW)

and Napleon (portrayed by Colonial Williamsburg's Lafayette).  My kids loved this since they had enjoyed previously meeting both actors.  During the hour long video, Thomas Jefferson and Napoleon answer various questions from a group of middle school students.  It was priceless to hear not onlyThomas Jefferson's perspective of Napoleon's style of leadership, but also to see his reaction to Napoleon's opinions! The expressions on my kids' faces were classic too! The actors' interpretations of Jefferson and Napoleon brought to life the pages my kids had read in their books.  Even though we had already discussed the Louisiana Purchase, the Declaration of Independence, Code Napoleon, democracy vs dictatorship, etc, my kids were able to view these ideas as through different lenses.  It was interesting to get Napoleon's perspective of his actions, because it shed light on what drove the man to conquer the world. 

After the video, my kids poured forth their reactions to Napoleon's view points.  They were incredulous how he justified everything.  That gave us fresh opportunity to approach his dictatorship from the perspective of various peoples of Europe. Specifically we focused on the lower class of France.  Napoleon claimed he was not a dictator.  For proof, he said the people were happy.  For the first time in their history, the chains of feudalism were gone and they had equality and liberty. Also they had "chosen" him to be their leader. My son was bothered by this because Napoleon was really a dictator who didn't offer a lot of choices to his people.  Their rights were not as free as Americans had in the United States.  I asked him who brought an end to the French Revolution and stabilized France?  Reluctantly, he admitted that it was Napoleon. What were the living conditions of the lower class prior to the Revolution? For generations upon generations, feudalism mandated allegiance to the nobles, no say in government, heavy taxation to support the king (and Marie Antoinette), poverty, hunger which led to the storming of the Bastille, the French Revolution, the guillotine, many temporary governments who could not bring control to the terror...at long last the people were supportive of this man who brought peace, control, and made their quality of life better than they or their ancestors had previously known.  We talked again about Code Napoleon, the civil law Napoleon put into effect for all people under his rule. We compared that to America where we have local laws, state laws and federal laws. But under Code Napoleon, all the people of France were under the same law as the people across conquered Europe, and for a time, Louisiana.  Even today, some countries and Louisiana continue to use parts of Code Napoleon for their law.  Isn't that interesting?  Then we compared that to how the upper class perceived Napoleon. The elite despised him for making the lower class equal to them.  Even though the Marquis de Lafayette willingly risked his fortune and worked for equality and freedom for France, he did not condone Napoleon's dictatorship. Lafayette had been to America and knew what true liberty could look like.  It was his dream that this type of freedom would become part of his people and his country, and from his perspective, Napoleon was missing the mark. Even Simon Bolivar, liberator of South America, admired Napoleon when he first brought stability to France.  But after he became monarch, Bolivar's perspective of him soured as he committed himself to free his own country from oppression, but vowed to never take over his own country as Napoleon did. We talked about the perspective of the monarchs of the surrounding nations who feared Napoleon's seizure of their countries.  Within those conquered nations, we considered the perspective of the common people who had a taste of freedom for the first time, without a monarchy, under Code Napoleon.  Opinions of Napoleon were/are all a matter of perspective.  Historically, we cannot deny the influence Napoleon had on the world. 

From our perspective today, we can see how the poor cheered Napoleon, the elite despised him, the educated were frustrated with him, those in the surrounding countries feared him, the conquered common people accepted him, while Americans kept their distance from him. Interestingly, Napoleon admired George Washington.  My kids wrote comparison/contrast papers on how they perceived these two memorable men.  Had Napoleon made choices like George Washington, hmmmmmm....what would the world be like today?