According to her Wikipedia article, "Marie Josephe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie was born in Les Trois-Îlets, Martinique to a wealthy white Creole family that owned a sugar plantation." She married one Alexandre de Beauharnais who lost his head in the Revolution. She had a daughter, Hortense, by Alexandre who married Napoleon Bonaparte's brother Louis and was then installed as Queen of Holland. Joséphine married Napoleon in 1796, but Joséphine's marriage to Napoleon was not successful. In one instance in 1804, daughter Hortense reconciled the two. Joséphine and Napoleon were crowned in 1804. She could not produce an heir so Napoleon divorced her in 1810.
Her son by Alexandre, Eugene, had a daughter named Joséphine who became Queen of Sweden, succeeding Napoleon's one-time fiancée Desirée Clary as Queen of Sweden.

1804 Closeup of Josephine from Sacre de l'empereur Napoleon et couronnement de l'imperatrice Josephine by Jacques-Louis David (Louvre)

Empress Josephine wearing strings of pearls in a miniature painting set in a gold lined hardstone snuff-box and framed with diamonds (auctioned by Christie's)

ca. 1805 Josephine by Robert Lefevre (Chateâux de Malmaison et Bois-Preau - Rueil-Malmaison, Hauts-de-Seine department France)

1806 Empress Josephine by Francois Pascal Simon Gerard (Chateaux de Malmaison et Bois-Preau, Malmaison France)

Josephine de Beauharnais by François Pascal Simon Gerard (Chateau Fontainebleau, Fontainebleau France)

Josephine after Francois Pascal Simon Gerard (Chateaux de Malmaison et Bois-Preau, Malmaison France)

1863 Joséphine by Victor Viger du Vigneau (Châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau - Rueil-Malmaison, Île-de- France, France)

Impératrice Joséphine (1763-1814) en grand costume by Jean Baptiste Isabey (Musée du Louvre - Paris France)

1806 Empress Joséphine by Henri-François Riesener (Châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau, Malmaison France)

Empress Joséphine wearing a pearl parure in a miniature painting by or after Daniel Saint set in a gold presentation snuff box

ca. 1807 Joséphine by Ferdinand-Paul-Louis Quaglia (Châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau, Malmaison France)

1805 or after Imperatrice Giuseppina by Baron François-Joseph Bosio (Châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau, Malmaison France)

1807 Joséphine wearing original cameo parure by Andrea Appiani (Châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau, Malmaison France)

ca. 1808 Empress Joséphine by Baron Antoine-Jean Gros (Musée d'Art et d'Histoire at Palais Massena, Nice France)

1809-1814 Joséphine after Ferdinand-Paul-Louis Quaglia (Châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau, Malmaison France)
