Homework. Cox connect to compete. Caucus, along with these television companies, support cspan 2 as a public service. Welcome everyone. My name is philip meade and i am the chief historian and creator of this museum of the American Revolution. So pleased to see you all tonight for frederick oh bears presentation on Scott Stevenson sends his regrets, he had intended to be here tonight holding but was unavailable that he may be watching from zoom so if you are out there hello. I wanted to call your attention tonight to unimportant object that we actually have in this room and this is a fragment of a hessian miter cap from the fuselage ears of two has a castle, it was discovered among other fragments of these caps in the Delaware River in the early 20th century year and some Historical Research by craig manaus and others has pretty well established that it was lost when a troop transport went under in may of excuse me, march of the Delaware River and may the soldiers on board survived, but a bunch of their things stayed in the river. They were dredged up and are on display. Other pieces of the same material are on display in the court gallerys. So, tonight we have the privilege of welcoming fredricka bexar he was an associate professor of hosts history and a Division Head for arts and humanities a Pennsylvania State university and Addington College her Research Focused on the experience of german speaking people in north america from the revolutionary period to the late 19th century. Publications prior to tonight include the trial of frederick emerald language, patriotism, and citizenship, and philadelphia Chairman Committee from 1870 to 1930 what was the mentor st. Pauls and louisville prize for the best book in Lutheran Church history. Tonight she is launching her book, haitians, german soldiers in the American Revolutionary war which is, i think, destined to be a indispensable book for scholars and general students of the American Revolution. Its plums an extraordinary number of previously unexamined primary sources and gives us a view of a community in this conflict that we really have always understood to a glass darkly, so to speak. But with precision, clarity, humanity that actually is going to be very hard to beat as the definitive treatment for i think a very, very long time. So, thank you very much dr. Bear for these contributions. We are eager to hear your comments. First, i wanted to also introduce from Haverford Trust which has supported these revolution programs both the email publications that many of you get but also these evenings. I want to introduce our representing our furred for a few words, Rebecca Farnsworth who is their Vice President and institutional portfolio manager. Doctor, thank you very much for joining us here. [applause] hello everyone, thank you phil. As phil mentioned, my name is becky farnsworth. I am delighted to be here representing the Haverford Trust company. Have it for it is an investment managing firm that is in has certainly dollars in investment management. I mean, substantially, that im trusted with advising a number of our firms non profit client. I think we all feel very fortunate to live in a region that has very deep philosophical use and haverford has been committed to serving our Nonprofit Community since firms inception over 40 years ago. The greatest joy of my job is building deep, Strategic Partnerships with our nonprofit clients and the amazing organizations like museum of the American Revolution. They do such important work in strengthening the fabric of our communities and hartford has been a longtime partner of the museum. It is very much a pleasure of our organization to, once again, sponsor the incredible read the revolution Speakers Series here at the museum. As like including speaker of this years presentation program, we are always looking forward to hearing from dr. Bear. Thank you so much for being here this evening on person on zoom, i will turn it over to phil to get things started. Thank you. [applause] thank you. Without further do, professor barr if you join me up here and thanks for the wisdom. Thank you. Okay. I never thought i would be giving a lecture on the American Revolution im so happy to be here today. Thank you today, whether joining us in person or on zoom. Wherever you are. Thank you for being here. Thank you for still scout the entire team, its been a wonderful working with you all to get this organized. Thank you for your trust supporting the speaker series, ive had the pleasure of attending a few of them and they were great experiences. I have this one will be a great experience for you as well. Which are the first flight. So, i would like to say a few general words about who they were, the thousands of troops which we call hessians. How do they end up in north america . Then i will give you a few snapshots of their experiences over the war. I want to start with a brief introduction. In a 17 70s and 1780s, as many as 40,000 german soldiers were hired to defend British Imperial interests on four continents. In europe, india, south africa, and of course in america. The vast majority of them, at least three set thousands saw service america. In august, 70 76, a german periodical deutch chronicle. German chronicle. They noted optimistically that, soon the englishman have to think german second time for the conquest of america. The editor was alluding to William Pitts famous reference to germanys role in the seven yearswar a decade earlier. A war that had resulted in france seating a large portion of its territorial possession to north america, along with several caribbean islands to britain. Earlier that year, 1776, britain Prime Minister lord north had predicted that the higher of the german auxiliaries would bring the war in which he called a speedy resolution which without, quote, the further diffusion of blood. Neither of these protections, of course as we know now, came true. The steady supply of germans actually helped keep the war going for seven more years. Before i continue, and we have a size that by the late 17 70s, early 1780s. One third of the British Regular armys strength in north america consisted of german auxiliaries. This was not an insignificant president s. Moreover, between the summer of 1776 when the first contingent set foot on american soil and 70 83 when the british army evacuated the newly founded united states, members of the german core spent extended periods of time in a location is diverse and as go back in nova scotia in the north and florida cuba in the south. Across vast rain, they produced all military campaigns and a momentous skirmishes and military counters. Some never saw battle, they spent their entire time in north america somewhere in garrison. Thousands died of disease, were killed in battle, or were captured by the enemy over the course of the war a growing number also deserted. I put up this map here from west Point Military academy, which is a great collection of maps like this just to remind you of the sort of major campaigns. The writer the british campaigns. As i mentioned, the british took part in all of them. I should point out that they did not take part in the great lakes region. They did not go into florida. They did, however, take part in a couple of campaigns that are not highlighted here. Namely the occupation of Newport Island and all the way to pensacola and then fighting into spanish and the number of courts along the mississippi river. They would also troops up in nova scotia, which is not indicated here on this map. How did they end up in america . In the spring of 75, 1775. Britain faced a challenging task of raising substantial military force that could be dispatched to america quickly. For various reasons, i dont want to go into detail, the king determined that they would appeal to race officials number of troops at home or within other parts of the empire including north america. After his failure to hire 20,000 russians, the kings turn to general several german states for support. Find intelligence actually suggests that british efforts to hire hessians may troops may have commences earliest fall 70 74, before the war even started. At that time, just a reminder, what is sometimes called the trade and soldiers wasnt acceptable former revenue. Rulers used the income from hiring out military units to support their lifestyle, pay off territorial debt, and to Fund Projects that were defined benefits their territories generally, such as construction villages, hospitals, schools, or spas. Moreover, subsidy trees should also be seen as political matters that allow the rulers of smaller territories within the Holy Roman Empire to maintain a certain degree of power and influence. In some cases, to preserve interest to came to action from foreign powers. All the major european powers as france, russia, pasha, and the aids provinces have netherlands included foreign troops and their male terry forces. In fact, in the 18th century the typical European Army was a multinational force. Eventually, of course, you know six german territories all of course theres no drama at the time, the whole roman empire consisted of so many territories. Sunlen multi agree gender subsidy treaties to hire auxiliary troops in exchange for substantial payments. As which i could pile on the map. Small territory of [speaking nonenglish] in any case, there are six territories. They rented out troops ranging from 1200, ultimately 1200 from the territory of all day to as many 19 or 20,000 soldiers out of the Hassan Castle. The very first treaties resigned in late 75, the first troops began turning to america february 1776. We should also point out that the soldiers were not mercenaries. They are usually referred to as mercenaries, but they were not mercenaries. Mercenaries with the soldiers who fought and a foreign army our war for personal profit. These troops are considered auxiliaries, military units that were hired out by their respective rulers to assist britain in their efforts to put down the american all have the sub few treatments very somewhat, they agreed on the basics. Very quickly. The troops would serve on lesser safety same terms as soldiers. The only serve in europe and north america, this is a very important of the rulers. Britain paid annual subsidies to the rulers during the years they were in service and usually a couple of years after. No one knew how long the war would laughed. Last. Britain would also pay for transport to and from america, cover individual pay, equipment, provisions, replacements, medical care, and so on. As you can probably imagine, keeping track of all of this was quite challenging. Its not even more complicated at over the course of the war. For those of you who like spreadsheets, this is one from 1783. This is actually trying to tally up expenses an income that was still owed to the Ground Troops in canada at the time on the eve of the evacuation of their return to europe. There are lots of records like this in the archives. You have people, even then sorry, its hard for us to figure whats going on. By thinning out people there to complain constantly. We have paid for what, so british bank in london or its very confusing. I also want to write that the expenses rations uniforms were commonly deducted from soldiers pay. So, soldiers themselves were responsible for covering some of these expenses. The german units could be commanded by their own officers interact with their own military law. They almost always served alongside british troops with very much the Commanding Officer was always a british officer. The majority of these troops were supplied by the territories of Hassan Castle and hassan now, the label hessians has been used since with some of the time of these two describe alternatives north america regardless of origin. For this reason, im using the term in the title of my book. However, in the book itself and also today i use german when referring to the troops collectivity and hessians when discussing units where individuals belong to the hessians core. The subsidy troops and devalued civilians never described themselves as hessians unless they were actually from hessen or belonged to a hessians military unit. The troops are accompanied by hundreds of civilian employees and other camp followers including medical personnel, a chaplains, servants, laborers. To the army also belong in a significant number of women including single women and also lives of soldiers that served on a range or essential roles such as for example longer some mates who were employed in field hospitals there was also a great number of children. So, where these exhilarates eriz . None of the tournament rulers simply rented out their entire armies. The potentially long term and even permanent loss of large numbers of black men would not only hurt the economy, not only hurt the territory economically, but would also of course potentially make it vulnerable to foreign threats. In general, the regiments hide out to britain consisted of a combination of experience urge soldiers and new recruits. Some of whom had probably never fired a gun before leaving for the war in america. For, example the their baltic regiment that i mentioned earlier consisted of roughly 670 men, typically, at full strength. It consisted of around 200 men who were taken from two regiments at the time that were in Touch Service at the time. The other ones, that twice that number, id be specially recruited for service in america. So, britain may have expected to get a trained and experienced military force, but this was only partially the case. It was fairly easy to fill the office rank. The war presented them with an opportunity to advance their careers. All of the territories received large numbers of requests for applications, essentially, from officers as well as ambitious soldiers and veterans asking for appointments in the american core. The territories used a variety of conscription schemes to raise the troops. Such as enrollment lists, for example, or requiring districts to raise a certain number of men. Regardless of the kind of scheme they employed, the territories were essentially looking for the same type of men to fill up the regiments. They had to, be ideally, physically and mentally fit to withstand demands of military service in america. They should be at least around five feet four inches tall. Ideally, they were single and, if married, without children. All of these requirements, i should mention, we are relaxed over the course of the war, as it became increasingly difficult to fill and make up for the losses. All of the territories used various exemptions that were designed to exclude certain men from military service. For example, only some sons, sons expected to inherit property, property owners, laborers in essential industries such as mining. These men were not supposed to go out to service abroad. Generally, recruiters were supposed to enlist foreigners, by which they meant not natives to the territory where they were recruiting. Or native men deemed expendable. That, means essentially, men whose departure for america was regarded as having little or no economic disadvantages for the territory or whose absence may have been seen as beneficial for the local community. For example, in february of 1776, an official from browns white as the duke for permission to enlist a poor man who was serving time for stealing what from the duke of forests. That same month a woman begged the duke to enlist her son in law who she described as quote a disgusting godless man, and of quote. She pleaded with him to, quote free as from this evil man and we have quite a few petitions like this in the german archives. Drunkenness, laziness, those kinds of things are with sometimes in, laws can you please taken to america. Ideally, the men volunteered. But german archives document cases of men who refused to be recruited, potentially escape different territories, recruits who deserted or mute need and families who pleaded with a ruler to exempt husbands and sons for a variety of reasons. Just because a man was deemed expendable by the territory did not mean he was deemed expended by the families. So, a lot of even poor families, when the husband or son was gone, these families suffered even more economically. So, poor families are very much affected by this, as you can probably imagine. The main objectives when we read these petitions from, parents for example, or wives, to exempt their husbands, the main objection appears to be the prospect of serving in a foreign war on a distant continent against an enemy that had done harm. Military assistance was not the, problem it was sending meant to america where many assumed they would never come back. Although britain had hired german auxiliary is on multiple occasions since the 18th century, the 17th century really, they had never served outside of europe. So, this was new. It is difficult to determine how many men were forced into service. The definition of forest might include difficult economic circumstances, for example, problems with relatives, trouble with the law. And it issued a tactics such as trickery or offers of food or alcohol, parental and peer pressure appeal to the men sense of patriotism and love for their ruler, also playing important roles and compelling subjects to enlist. Many were undoubtedly, we know this, impoverished rural folk who were forced to go by their circumstances or by the authorities. That with german poet we recalled in 1851 that in 1775, and i quote, america used to be the elder rideau of people who found themselves in a difficult situation. However, there were also many reasons why a man from the Holy Roman Empire may have volunteered f