Incomprehensible Friends and Rebellious Enemies: German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War

Between 1776 and 1783, Great Britain hired more than thirty thousand German soldiers to fight in its war against the American rebels. Collectively known as Hessians, these troops and accompanying civilians, including hundreds of women and children, spent extended periods in locations as dispersed and varied as Canada in the north and West Florida in the south. Drawing on extensive research in private papers and official records by members of the German corps, this presentation by Friederike Baer, Ph.D. explores the key experiences of these individuals as they waged war on a distant continent against a people who had done them no harm, with particular attention to German troops stationed in the Philadelphia region.

Lectures are free and open to the public. Programs begin at 7:30 PM. Refreshments will be available at the conclusion of the lecture.

The John Barnes Room, Abington Friends Meeting

Zoom links with registration details will be available on the website by noon the day of the event. Zoom presentations are live and not recorded for later playback due to copyright restrictions on the images used in the presentations.

The lecture series is sponsored by a grant from the Jenkinstown Lyceum. For more information, please call the Old York Road Historical Society at 215–886–8590.