The Hessian Experience with Friederike Baer
Episode description
Following the evacuation of Boston in March of 1776, London authorities knew that Britain's small British alone could not possibly conquer the American continent. King George III, also the Elector of Hanover, reached out to his German relations and other allied provinces to provide auxiliary forces to send to America. Arriving first at New York in 1776, about 30,000 German soldiers would serve in the American War for Independence. Friederike Baer, Associate Professor & Division Head of the Arts & Sciences at Pennsylvania State University's Abington College, joins us to talk about their experiences, which she tells in her new book Hessians: German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War, the first comprehensive account of the German experience in the American war.