In the 1770s and 1780s, Britain employed at least 30,000 German soldiers in its quest to put down the American rebellion. The rulers of several German territories within the Holy Roman Empire hired out these troops in exchange for subsidy payments. By 1781, more than one third of the British army’s strength in North America consisted of soldiers that soon became known as the “Hessians,” regardless of place of origin. These troops, which were accompanied by hundreds of civilians, including women and children, produced a wealth of private and public records that offer unique perspectives on American society during the revolutionary period. An examination of these German-authored accounts sheds light on often neglected aspects of the war, ranging from the theater of war in the Gulf Coast region to the decision of at least one hundred African Americans to return with German regiments to Europe in 1783.

Friederike Baer is Associate Professor of History at Penn State Abington College. Her research focuses on the experiences of German-speaking people in late eighteenth and nineteenth century North America. She is the author of The Trial of Frederick Eberle: Language, Patriotism and Citizenship in Philadelphia’s German Community, 1790-1830 (NYU Press, 2008). Her other publications include essays in Early American Studies,The Journal of the Civil War Era, and the Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies. She is currently completing a book on the German auxiliary troops in the War for American Independence.