Illustration of two Hessian soldiers
Thomas Jefferson included in the Declaration of Independence’s list of grievances that King George III had dispatched “foreign troops” from the German states to help the British fight the colonists. Jefferson was outraged that the king would hire Hessian mercenaries to suppress British subjects.
The British government dispatched about 30,000 German troops to help the redcoats put down the revolt in America. The colonists had been primed: News reports described the mercenaries as blood-thirsty butchers coming to kill them. So, when their troop transport ships weighed anchor, the Continental Congress implored the colonists to “step forth” in defense of “everything they hold dear.” Many answered the call to repel these foreign invaders—and the Hessians’ presence became an accelerant that sped the transformation of the conflict in the colonies into a full-scale war to defend the homeland and secure American independence.
Richard Bell, a professor of history at the University of Maryland, surveys the mercenaries’ contributions to the British war machine, including their efforts to sweep Washington’s army out of New York City and back to New Jersey. He also looks at the way ordinary Americans’ perception of them changed. After nearly a thousand Hessian troops were captured at Trenton, their image evolved from thugs capable of “ungovernable brutality,” into objects of pity—dupes stuck under the thumb of a tyrant king. Patriots urged Hessian soldiers to throw down their weapons, desert, or switch sides—and many did. When the war finally ended, almost six thousand German veterans chose to put down roots, betting their futures on the prospects of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the newly formed United States.
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