Soldiers for Sale: German "Mercenaries" with the British in Canada During the American Revolution (1776-83)

The author examines how the British Army that fought the American Revolutionaries was, in fact, an Anglo-German army. Arguing that the British Crown had doubts about the willingness of British soldiers to fight against other English-speaking people in North America, the author details how the task of providing troops fell upon the princes of German States, who were relatives of England's royal family. In return for large amounts of money, German princes and barons provided about 30,000 soldiers, many of whom were dragged unwillingly from their families and sent to fight in a war in which they had no interest. While some of the soldiers eventually melted into the French and English-speaking societies of Quebec, the author argues that little history of these soldiers is available, not even to the descendant families. Of those who survived, the author has traced 1,200 Germans who remained in Quebec and were eventually assimilated into the Francophone society.

Montreal

Baraka Books

2011

296p.

en

978-1-926824-12-3