THE BLACK HESSIANS: NEGROES RECRUITED
BY THE HESSIANS IN SOUTH CAROLINA AND OTHER COLONIES
George Fenwick Jones*
First printed in South Carolina Historical Magazine, Vol. 83,
#4
While investigating the military records of the Hessian State
Archives in Marburg(1) for information concerning Col. Friedrich
von Perbeck, the victor at Springhill Redoubt in the Battle of
Savannah on 9 October, 1779,(2) I was struck by the name Bossum,one
of the colonel¹s Hessian soldiers. The name stood out oddly
against the many Johann Muellers and Heinrich Schmidts,being but
a single name and certainly not a German one. However, because
the Hessians seem genetically unable to distinguish between p
and b (Porbeck¹s name often appears as Borbeck, and he wrote
of General Bulasky¹s attack near Gibb¹s blantation),
I soon surmised that the soldier in question might have been named
Possum. This assumption was justified when it was revealed that
Bossum was recruited at Ogeechee, Georgia; and it was fully confirmed
when the spelling appeared as Possum in an entry which will be
discussed later. Why this man was called Possum we do not know.
Did he squint? Did he steal chicken eggs? Or did he ³play
possum² when work was to be done? It was soon disclosed that
Possum was not the only black to serve with the Hessians, even
though, to my knowledge, this fact has been ignored by most if
not all American historians. (3)
In the Marburg records alone I found some hundred and fifteen
servicemen designated as Neegers, Negroes, or Moors; and it is
evident not only that many company clerks were color blind but
also that many records have been lost. Nothing is said about the
color of the fifer William Rockwell, who enlisted in 1777, but
this becomes obvious when we learn that he came from Guinea in
Africa. It is difficult to identify many blacks serving with the
Hessians because their names are often replaced by their German
equivalents, especially in the case of Christian names, the only
names borne by many of these blacks. This was then the normal
practice, just as it is still permissible for us to turn the names
of German rulers such as Friedrich, Heinrich, and Wilhelm into
Frederick, Henry and William. The Christian names of blacks in
Hessian lists can usually, but not always, be recognized: those
recorded as Johann, Ludwig, Printz, Wilhelm, and Karl were nearly
always John, Lewis,Prince, William, and Charles;(4) but this does
not tell us precisely what the individual called himself. Heinrich
could have been Henry or Harry, Jacob and Jacques could have been
jack, Jacob, Jake, James, or Jim and Jean and Jann could have
been either John or Jean. Semm and Scheck are attempts to render
Sam and Jack (or Jacques). On the other hand, one can only guess
at names like Debbenje and Heggen.
Family names too are sometimes nebulous. Kuppert is probably Cooper,
and Hemton is probably Hampton. It is hard to recognize the English
names lurking behind Deutes and Suesser, both of which are Germanized
beyond recognition, unless the latter is a translation of the
name Sweet. The name Hunden also sounds suspect, as do the names
Prontorf and Cochvil, the latter of which could have been Coqueville,
since the first name, Hector, was more popular among French-speaking
than among English-speaking colonists. Goethe seems a most unlikely
name for an American black, unless some Hessian officer had already
read Johann Wolfgang Goethe¹s The Sorrows of Young Werther,
which had been the rage since its publication in 1774. It is most
likely that many blacks had no last names until the recruiting
officers assigned them for the sake of convenience. The name Richard
Dick suggests that the bearer was sometimes called Dick and sometimes
Richard, thereby leading the recruiters to think he had two names;
and the same was probably true of John Jack. Confusion as to first
names also occurred in the case of Hessian troops: the Hessian
drummer Geis was recorded as Philip Geis on 24 June 1780, yet
one month later he was recorded as Wilhelm Geis. Perhaps he had
several Christian names, as many as the Germans did then and still
do. If his name was, say, Philip Georg Wilhelm Heinrich Geis,
he may well have forgotten which Christian name he had used when
first enlisting. This was especially true of the old nobility,
who sported many names;(5) and it could have held of a black who
was not quite sure whether his real name was Dick or Richard.
Phonetic spelling like Scheck and Tschu resulted from the illiteracy
of the bearers, who has to leave the spelling to the German scribe.
Caesar Tschu, who appears elsewhere as Caesar Jews, owes his peculiar
spelling to the Germans¹ inability to pronounce an English
³j² sound.(6) Perhaps we see the beginnings of ³black
English² when the scribes write Steeban, Deban, and Mostown
for Stephen, Devon, and Morristown. We should remember that most
of these black recruits were slaves who had never been baptized
and therefore had no real legal names,being considered mere chattel.
Sometimes a conjectured identity can be confirmed by another entry.
Drummer Pappe must have been the same man as Peter Pope, since
both are listed as drummer in the Second Company of the Landgrave
Regiment. It is even possible that George of Ogeechee, who enlisted
as a private in the Second Company of the Wissenbach Regiment
on 26, June 1780 and was reassigned as drummer on the following
21 August,was the same as the George of Georgia, aged seventeen,
who was recruited by the Third Company of the same regiment on
the following 16 December. Sometimes the situation was more enigmatic.
For example, Wallace (Wallis) of South Carolina, who was recruited
as drummer on 26 June 1780, was reassigned as musketeer on 21
August when George jr. was recruited as drummer in the same company.
Then,on 9 March 1781, an otherwise unmentioned musketeer named
Stewart was reassigned as drummer to replace our previously mentioned
Possum,who had been dismissed. This suggests, but does not prove,
that Stewart and Wallace were the same person. William Rockwell
and William Roessel were obviously the same person, since they
concur in the first name, place of origin, unit , and function.
The same is true of Jacob Thon of Deban in American and Jacob
Thon of Long Island.
Merts is revealed elsewhere to be the same as March, as one might
guess from the fact that Maerts was the correct German spelling
of that month; and, as we have seen, Caesar Tschu¹s name
was more recognizable to an Englishman when written Jews, which
may have been a corruption of Jules. Quite often a cross-reference
is our only clue that an entry refers to a black/ There is no
racial information about the above mentioned Peter Pope of Virginia
who enlisted as a drummer in October 1779; but he must have been
black if he was the Pope of Virginia who enlisted as Profos (military
policeman) in the same company two years later, for this time
his color was mentioned. The drummer John (Jean) Winder of Charleston
would appear to have been black if for no other reason than that
most drummers recruited by the Hessians in America were black
and that Charleston had a large black population.(7) It is also
to be noted that the monthly reports do not always indicate when
sickness, capture, and desertion began but merely state that the
person in question was being carried on the rolls as sick, captured,
or deserted at the time the report was submitted. (8) It is also
to be remembered that some recruits may have enlisted fraudulently,
giving false names, ages, or domiciles, as we shall see in the
case of Jacques from the West Indies.
Because many documents are lacking and because the surviving ones
sometimes fail to identify blacks as such, this account cannot
be complete. Instead it will merely furnish a number of typical
examples that should suffice to give a vivid picture of the duties
performed by blacks in Hessian service. Although many stones are
missing from this mosaic and some no doubt erroneously placed,
a general outline should still emerge. Because documenting each
individual fact would cause an excess of footnotes, the reader
is referred to the twenty-nine regimental diaries and rosters
in which they are found. (9) It may interest the reader to know
where most of the black Hessians came form. Of those whose origins
are given, the greater number came from the original thirteen
mainland colonies, while five came from Africa (three of them
from Guinea), three from the West Indies (one from Antigua and
one from Peters), and one from Lisbon.(10) Of the colonies, South
Carolina supplied by far the largest contingent, which is not
surprising when we consider that the coastal area occupied by
the British and Hessians was predominantly black, the white yeoman
farmers having been almost entirely displaced by large-scale planters
using only Negro labor.(11) Besides that, the blacks were better
adjusted to the subtropical climate,which kept most of the European
troops in the lazaretto much of the time. Although they too suffered
from malaria, their tropical origins prepared them to withstand
it better. Of the some fourty-seven recruits from South Carolina,
twenty-eight claimed Charleston as their home, while four claimed
Johns Island and one each claimed Ponpon, James Island, and Stono
Ferry. The Simon who gave his home as Ponpon(12) when enlisting
in August 1777 was surely the Wilhelm Simon who joined the same
company four years later from Charleston. Perhaps his service
in the big city had caused him to assume a family name. Some of
these recruits gave gave their homes merely as ³Carolina,²
yet we are safe in assuming that most of them meant South Carolina,
since the Hessians seem to have recruited few blacks in North
Carolina, where they served for a shorter period.(13) Virginia
followed with fourteen recruits, three of them from Portsmouth,
three from Suffolk Counts, and one each from Norfolk, Gloucester,
Nemsey, and New Kent County. New York came next with eleven; three
of them from Long island, two from Brookline Ferry, one from Flatbush,
one from Fishkill (Viskill), and one from Deban (Devon?). New
Jersey came next with nine: three from Morristown, and one each
from Bordington (Burlington), Fraxton, Imblistown, Middlebush,
Princeton, and Perth Amboy. Georgia followed with six: in addition
to the previously mentioned Possum and George Jr. of Ogeechee
and Carl James of Ebenezer, we find Peter and Peterson of Savannah
and also George and Philip,whose towns are not specified. The
George Adam who enlisted in December 1779 as being from the West
Indies was listed as being from Savannah when he deserted in January
1783. Rhode Island and Pennsylvania each provided two recruits,
and Connecticut and Florida each one. Unidentified are the home
states of Priester (Mansfield in North America) and Prom (China
in America).
Age is also an interesting factor. Since most of the black Hessians
were drummers, the tended to be very young, mostly in their teens
or early twenties. Caesar Ferguson of Newport and Peter Savannah
were only eleven, London of Charleston was twelve, and March of
Charleston and Isaac (home not given) were thirteen; but even
tender youth did not excuse misbehavior, as we shall see in the
sad case of Jacob of Flatbush. Whereas most black drummers and
even musketeers and teamsters were young, John Hunter of Guinea
had reached the ripe old age of fifty-two when he changed from
drummer to teamster on 12 April 1783. Slavery was, of course,
a major factor in black recruitment. Though seldom stated in the
Hessian records, many of the blacks, certainly most of those recruited
in the Southern colonies, had been slaves. This was the case with
Possum. After capturing Savannah, Lt. Col. Archibald Campbell
gave Possum to Col. von Porbeck, who had just joined the British
garrison at Savannah, believing him to be the property of a rebel.
However, the commanding officer, Lt. Col. Alured Clarke, assured
them that the lad had belonged to an orphan who was no longer
present, so, at Clarke¹s requisition, Possum was dismissed
and apparently given his freedom. A certain Jacques had given
his home as Selvicent in France when he enlisted in March 1777,
but he was dismissed on 4 April of that year when it was revealed
he was not a free man. Nevertheless, during the following month
he was recruited as a musketeer and served as such until being
reassigned as drummer on 1 October of the same year. John (Jann)
of Brookline Ferry,who enlisted in April 1778, was ³reclaimed²
on 8 May of that year and dismissed from the service; and the
same was true of Isaac, aged thirteen. who enlisted in July 1778
but was reclaimed on the 31st of the next month. This suggests
that they were runaway slaves who had enlisted but had been found
and repossessed by their masters, no doubt with fitting punishment.
Since the Hessians were supposedly protecting his Royal Majesty¹s
loyal; subjects,they could not confiscate their property, as we
have seen in the case of Possum. The dangers, rigors, and boredom
of military life can best be borne in company, so it is not surprising
that many black Hessians enlisted with one or more companions.
Possum of Ogeechee and Daniel of South Carolina both enlisted
in May 1780 in Savannah, where they were joined on the 26th of
the following month by Wallace of South Carolina, George Sr. of
South Carolina, and George of Ogeechee. Because of their different
domiciles, George Sr.and George Jr. do not appear to have been
father and son, but merely George the elder and George the younger,a
distinction made for accuracy in submitting reports, since neither
had a last name. Surprisingly, the older was a drummer and the
younger a private. Paul Robert, John Benn, and Henry Thompson
enlisted together on 16 May 1780 at Johns Island; and Harry and
Printz seem to have enlisted together in Charleston in December
1780. Comradeship is also revealed by desertions: Jack Johnson
of Charleston and James of Suffolk deserted together on 16 June
1780, and wagon hand John of Virginia and wagon hand Prom of China
deserted together on 27 July 1782. It is immediately apparent
that the largest number of black Hessians were drummers. Their
relative status among the troops is hard to evaluate: the drummer
could be a child, as we have seen in the case of the eleven and
twelve year olds, while the musketeer had to be a grown man. The
Hessian regiments had strict minimum size requirements, but exceptions
could be made for young recruits who gave promise of growing larger
with time.(14) Once a drummer had reached the required stature,
he could transfer to another duty. Wallace, who had enlisted as
a drummer, was reassigned as a musketeer on 21 August 1780; and
George Jr., who had enlisted as a private (and therefore presumably
a musketeer),(15) was reassigned as a drummer. Anyone who has
been in military service knows that assignments sometimes exist
only on paper: the soldier serves in the most needed capacity
but officially occupies any available billet while waiting for
the right one to become vacant. Frequently, when a black drummer
joined a unit, a Hessian drummer was reassigned as a private or
a musketeer. For example, Reinhard Amend became a musketeer on
15 May 17882 when Caesar Ferguson and Coeton Hampton were recruited
as drummers, and numerous other examples could be cited. (16)
On the company commander¹s part it was practical to take
on a youngster so as to free and able-bodied man for combat. However,
it should be remembered that not every applicant was qualified
to be a drummer: Jos Sante(s) of Norfolk was dismissed on 1 June
1780 because of poor sight and bad behavior; and Jacques of Charleston,
who enlisted on 30 September 1780, was dismissed within the month
³because he is not suited as a drummer² (weilen er zum
Tombour nicht schickt).
Despite the dangers involved, it would seem that the service as
musketeer was the most glamor. As we have seen, the would-be Frenchman
Jacques was recruited the second time in that capacity, and Wallace
also serve thus for a short time. Later, when Gen. Knyphausen,
the commander of all Hessians in America, refused Wallace¹s
request to be reassigned as musketeer, the latter was dismissed
from the service.Perhaps he refused to serve in any other role,
or perhaps, like Jacques,he was no longer found adequate as a
drummer. Cornelius McKenzie of Middle bank, NJ, served over three
years as a grenadier. Isaac Williams began serving as a grenadier
in May 1777, but there is no record of how long he served.
Whereas the majority of black Hessians were drummers, a good number
were Knechte (servants or laborers). Some of these were further
designated as Packnechte (sumpters, packhands) as Wagenknechte
(carters, teamsters), and it is not always possible to ascertain
what duties the Knecht performed. No doubt, in time of need, such
as while preparing for Count D¹Estaing¹s attack on Savannah,
all hands pitched in to dig trenches. The ³Moor² John
Jack replaced Christopher Schmidt as Packknecht on 1 March 1780;
and the drummer John Hunter was reassigned as Wagenknecht on 16
April 1783 after more than three years as a drummer. Sam of Virginia
enlisted for the first , at the age of fourteen, as a drummer;
but three years later, having increased in age and size, he reenlisted
in the same regiment as a Knecht. One usually thinks of drummers
and labor troops as non-combatants; although drummers accompanied
their troops through shot and shell, they are usually depicted
carrying their huge drums but no arms. This seems to be contradicted,
as we shall see, in reports of drummers who take French leave
with full arms. Both drummers and labor troops were exposed to
artillery fire, especially during sieges such as those at Savannah
and Yorktown; yet the records I have searched show no blacks killed
in actions and only one wounded. (17) Some scholars have suggested
that the older musketeers refrained from aiming at the youthful
drummers; but even if that were so, shells and rockets were no
respecters of person. Perhaps the drummers¹ casualties were
low because they followed their units, as Lt. Peter Boehm, himself
a Hessian officer, has assured. The drummer Goethe of New York
was drowned on 16 June 1777 while unloading a boat. Whereas these
reports mention no black combat deaths, they do show that even
blacks were susceptible to disease. (18) Thomas of Long Island,
thirty years old, died of sickness on 20 April 1778 after five
months in service; and Prince Lewis, twenty-six years old, died
in Burlington on 28 March 1777 after little more than a year.
Paul Robert of Johns Island died of sickness in Charleston on
17 June 1780 after only one month of service; Champer Ederson
of Rhode Island, twenty-three years old, died on 16 July 1782
after three years of service. Drummer Jaob Robert of Johns Island,
who dies of sickness on 17 June 1780, was surely black, since
all the white people had fled before British and Hessians occupied
the island. The Hessians lost more black troops through capture
than through death or sickness. The Knyphausen Regiment lost the
most
: in April 1782 it listed as missing(19) Jack of South Carolina,
John Jacob of Fraxton, James of Portsmouth, Jack Johnson of Charleston,
and Tony of Imblistown. The same regiment had already lost Janes
of Suffolk, Tschu (Jews), and Pompy Prontorf, who were listed
as captured on the monthly lists from June 1779, October 1781
and November 1781 respectively. Prontorf was redeemed from the
Rebels to serve with the Leib-Compagnie. The Prince Successor
Regiment was still missing Jean Rode and Thomas of Hampton in
August of 1782; for on their way to captivity in Frederick, MD.,
in June of that year they had been forcefully seized by the local
inhabitants. we have no clue whether they had been recognized
as renegade slaves, or whether they were being impressed into
Rebel service.
It is, of course, not always possible to determine whether a man
was really captured or whether he cooperated with his captors,
as could have been the case of Jean Rodes and Thomas, who may
have been glad to be released from captivity. The Vacant Company
lost six black drummers from the Rebel jail in Philadelphia, these
being the very men listed above as missing from the Knyphausen
Regiment. The Rebels took James of Portsmouth and Jack of South
Carolina on 9 October 1780 and put them on a privateer, and they
did the same with John Jacob of Fraxton on 8 March 1782 and with
Tony of Imblistown, Jack Johnson of Charleston, and James of Suffolk
on 20 March of that year.
The Hessians lost far more blacks to desertion than to death,
disease and capture combined. Desertion was a moral issue with
the actually Hessians, who had been taught to submit to the divinely
ordained authority of their rulers, which, if bad, was God¹s
just punishment for their sins. Nevertheless, such religious scruples
and the military the military pride and loyalty inculcated in
the troops did not prevent all Hessians from deserting to the
Americans, especially when the latter offered them lands and livestock.(20)
Other Germans in Hessian service felt fewer scruples,(21) especially
if they had been wrongfully impressed into service. The Americans
in Hessian service, both white and black, had even less compunction
about deserting and were restrained, if at all, only by fear of
firing squad or flogging.
Deserters who voluntarily returned to their posts seem to have
been forgiven, if we may judge from the case of the drummer Jack
of South Carolina, who deserted from Major von Endie¹s company
in Col. von Porbeck¹s regiment on 10 February 1782 but returned
to duty three months later. Jacob of Flatbush, who first enlisted
at the age of thirteen, was caught as a deserter at the age of
fifteen and was forced to run the gauntlet of two hundred men
on two successive days, after which he enrolled again.(22) Four
years later, on 25 May 1783, he deserted from Greenwich, this
time with uniform and equipment but without arms.
One desertion became a trans-Atlantic cause celebre. A certain
Lt. Col. Hans Heinrich Eitel wrote on 2 May !782 to His Most Illustrious
Landgrave to complain that a drummer named Dick, whom he had wished
to try for desertion, had already been tried and punished by the
detached artillery unit in which he was serving. Eitel was not
annoyed that the drummer had been punished, but only that the
detached regiment had infringed on the corps¹ right of jurisdiction,
for he feared that it might set a precedent. A scribble at the
bottom of the page, apparently the draft for a reply, declares
that the subordinate unit had acted properly in order to save
time in view of the great distance from the corp. Despite the
probability of being apprehended and the certainty of punishment
if apprehended,(23) the disaffected soldiers persisted in attempting
desertion, particularly after the outcome of the war assured.
Paul Peter deserted successfully on 15 December 1782 in Charleston
and was therefore better off than his fellow drummer Jack of Carolina,
who remained with his unit and froze to death on a march from
New Utrecht to Jamaica Town on Long Island.
Like many other deserters, some of the black Hessians absconded
with their uniforms and accouterments (montierung). Samuel of
South Carolina deserted with uniform and equipment, but without
his arms, on 7 December 1782, as did George Adam of Savannah;
and Jacob of Flatbush also wore his uniform when he deserted the
second time in October 1783. London of Charleston, although only
twelve years old, deserted on 26 October 1782 with both uniform
and arms,and wagon hand Morris had deserted already on 26 May
1781 with full armament, thus furnishing evidence that drummers
and labor troops were armed and could therefore be used in combat.
Towards the end of the war many men deserted with their equipment
and full arms; and this suggests they intended to join the enemy,
who were in need of well armed and accoutered men. Also, loyal
service on the American side, even if belated, exculpated those
who had served the enemy. Whereas most of the deserters left their
sentry posts, some, like John of South Carolina on 14 February
1783, deserted from their quarters, which was more dangerous.
Sometimes a trooper deserted so soon that he seems to have enlisted
only for the enlistment bounty and uniform: the nineteen-year-old
drummer John of Brookline on Long Island enlisted on 1 August
1783 and deserted twenty-eight days later. Of the hundred and
fifteen blacks investigated in this study, twenty-four deserted,
yet this percentage is scarcely higher than that of their European
comrades in arms.
Despite this apparently high desertion rate, many black soldiers
served out their time loyally. On 19 January 1783 the following
wagonhands were dismissed after four years of service: Prince
of Charleston, William Simon of Charleston, Peter of Guinea, and
Philip of South Carolina. James of Charleston was dismissed at
the same time after one year of service. Jacob Williams of St.
Augustine served as Knecht for four years, and Cornelius McKentire
served as a grenadier for three. The following drummers were dismissed
after the following periods of service: after four years, William
Simon of Ponpon, John Jacob of Fraxton, Robert Philip and George
Prince of South Carolina; after three years, Jack of Carolina,
Jack Johnson of Charleston, March of Charleston, John Caligula
of John¹s Island, and Tony of Imblistown; after two years,
Pompy Prontorf of the West Indies and Wallace of South Carolina;
after one year, William James and Thomas Suesser of Charleston
and Harry of South Carolina. Titus of Charleston served until
January 1783, but we do not know when he began his service. This
would suggest that South Carolina and New Jersey produced the
most loyal recruits. Some, like Jack of Charleston, George of
William of Jamaica Town, and James of Suffolk, were dismissed
after very brief service, yet it is still possible that they had
fulfilled their commitments. In any case, the fact that the Hessian
commanders continued recruiting blacks until the very end(24)
proves that they were, by and large,pleased with their performance.
This investigation has answered some questions, mostly questions
that have never been posed, such as: Were there any black Hessians?
How many were there, from where did they come,and in what capacities
did they serve? However, it has actually posed far more questions
than it has answered. The records give only bare facts, dates,
and statistics as of the time at which they are written. They
tell us little about the men involved, nothing about the motives
for enlisting, their thoughts or impressions while serving, or
their future fates. These men left no diaries or letters as so
many of their European fellow sufferers did, so we must use our
own suppositions to fill in the details. Why did the drummer Jack
return to duty in Savannah three months after deserting? Had he
deserted in order to receive the promised hundred acres, cow,
and brood sow, only to discover that these were not for men of
color? Or had he not actually escaped the carefully guarded city
but just gone underground among his people, vainly hoping to find
a route of escape?
It is unlikely that any of the men or boys we have discussed enlisted
out of loyalty to His Gracious Britannic Majesty, for in that
case they could just have easily have joined an English-speaking
unit. Some may have welcomed Hessian service as an escape from
slavery, other may have found it the only employment available
when their masters had fled and their plantations had been devastated.(25)
Some of the youngsters may have been attracted by the gaudy Hessian
uniforms, in which they must have cut a fine figure. Besides that,the
Hessian pay, furnished by the British crown, was relatively high;
and British currency was sounder than the continentals with which
the Congress paid its own ragged troops.(26)
But even more inviting than these financial benefits may have
been the tolerant attitude of the Hessians, who had not been schooled
in racial prejudice.(27) Nowhere in the Hessian reports and letters
do we find any supercilious or condescending attitudes towards
the blacks, and we may assume that the common Hessian soldier
judged the Negro by his performance rather than by his color.
Few if any Hessians had ever seen a black before coming to America,
except for Caspar, the Negro among the Kings who follow the star
to Bethlehem in the Hessian Christmas Play. This king, usually
the most sumptuously costumed, approaches the Christ Child with
the words, ³I am king from the land of the Moors. The sun
has burned me so black² (Ich bin ein Konig aus Mohrenland,
die Sonne hat mich scwartz gebrannt.) It is possible that this
association with Moorish king caused Col. von Porbeck and his
fellow Hessians to call all Negroes Mohren; yet it is to be remembered
that the term had long been used of the black musicians in the
Prussian army. The first of Prussia¹s many black musicians
was Hassan the Moor, christianed Christian Gottilieb, who attained
honorable status. married a lord mayor¹s daughter, and died
in 1690 as court trumpeter of Duke Hans Adolf of Schleswig-Holstein.
Frederick William, the ³Soldier King,² was so fond of
black musicians that he allowed his foreign policy to be influenced
by the party desiring to continue and expand Brandenburg¹s
commercial ventures on the west coast of Africa. Even thought
the commercial undertaking failed and the colonies were sold to
the Dutch, the Soldier King continued to receive black musicians.(28)
One might ask why there were so many black drummers but so few
black fifers or oboists, since many of the Moorish musicians in
the Prussian army had played the oboe. During the nineteen-thirties
the Germans were particularly fond of Negro jazz clarinet and
saxophone players; and we may assume that the Hessian regiments
employed fewer oboists, who were found only in one company of
the regiment while drummers were found in all companies, the ratio
being six to sixteen. According to our statistics, however, blacks
did not fill this quota: possible there were enough skillful German
woodwind players, whereas no Europeans could compete with African
drummers.(29)
Atavism may have played a role in the Africans¹ skill with
the drum: the drums for martial musical instruments was introduced
to Europe by blacks from the Sahara. The ancient Greeks had attacked
in phalanxes and the Romans had attacked as maniples; but the
Germanic warriors had not kept step, and they and their medieval
descendants fought individually as an armed rabble, each man trying
to outdo his comrades to win personal glory. Such was the army
of King Alphonso VI of Castile when he rode out to meet the Almoravids,
who had come to the aid of the hard pressed Moslems of Spain.
Then, on that fateful day at Zalluka in 1086, the dusky Almoravids
advanced in step to the deafening rumble of drums, which dismayed
the Christian knights and panicked the Christian horses; and Alphonso¹s
reconquista was halted.
Eventually,all European armies saw the advantage of advancing
in unison; and, by the time of Jean Martinet and the Great Elector
of Brandenburg, armies spent long hours in close order drill to
the beat of the drum, until the individual was totally integrated
into the military machine. It was precisely this kind of concerted
action that General von Steuben tried to inculcate into his ill-shod
troops at Valley Forge. For such tactics, the drum was an indispensable
weapon, and drummers in high demand. it was not difficult for
a black youth endowed with rhythm to find employment.(30)
Also unanswered in our sources is what became of the black Hessians
after they deserted or were dismissed. How many of them fought
later for the Rebels, and in what way? How long did the black
prisoners shanghaied from the Rebel jail at Philadelphia serve
on shipboard? How many died in action? Were any captured and impressed
into British service? And what happened to Possum, who touched
off out investigation? Did he evacuate Savannah with the British
and accompany them to St. Augustine, the West Indies,or a Northern
Colony? Or did his young master return and claim him? Or was he
among those who accompanied their units to Hessia? Some thrity-one
black Hessians are said to have accompanied their units to Europe
and been baptized with German names; but many of these soon sickened
and died, mostly of consumption. One prospered,married well, and
had the gracious Landgrave himself as a sponsor at his child¹s
baptism; another died and was dissected in the anatomy theater
of the Collegium Carolinum at Cassel, proving to the astonished
witnesses that under the black skin he was just like a white man.
(31)
END NOTES
* Professor of German and Comparative Literature
at the University of Maryland.
(1) I am indebted to Dr. Hans Philippi and the other
officials of the Hessian State Archives. My research there was
generously supported by the German Academic Exchange Service,
and my trip to Europe was covered by a grant from the US National
Endowment for the Humanities.
(2) See George F. Jones ³A note on the Victor
at Springhill Redoubt,² Georgia Historical Quarterly 44 (1979):
377-379
(3) No mention is made of Black Hessians in Rodney
Atwood, The Hessians (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980).
Benjamin Quarles, The Negro in the American Revolution (Chapel
Hill, 1961) had only devoted seven lines to the subject (p. 147).
The present article was written in Marburg during July-August
1980. Since then a brief article, also using the term ³Black
Hessian² but based only on printed English-language sources,
has appeared: Elliot W. Hoffman, ³Black Hessians: American
Blacks as German Soldiers,² Negro History Bulletin 44 (1981):
81-82, 91.
(4) Whereas Karl Thomas of Charleston had probably
been called Charles, Carl James of Ebenezer may really have been
baptized Carl, since Ebenezer was a purely German-speaking community
in which masters stood as godparents to their slaves, who had
to learn German if they wished to enter the kingdom of heaven,the
means to salvation being dispensed only in Luther¹s language.
(5) This explains the hopeless confusion in the
archives between the entries for the two Hessian officers Karl
Ludwig August Heino, Freiherr von Muenchhausen and Jakob Ludolf
Karl, Freiherr von Muenchhausen, both of Oldendorf.
(6) Americans who served in Europe during World
War II will remember the daily broadcast beginning, ³This
is Chermany callink.²
(7) The following drummers were surely black, even
if not so designated: Henry Thomson and Paul Robert of Johns Island,
Marcus of Charleston, John Steven of James Island, James Anthony
of S.C., Johnny and Sam of Portsmouth, VA. , and Isaac Springfield
of VA. If these and others were added to this study, it would
be longer but no more conclusive.
(8) This occurred whenever reports reached the regiment
long after the event, as when invalidated soldiers died in distant
hospitals, or when missing soldiers were subsequently reported
as captured . For example, Christian Marcu was carried on Col.
von Porbeck¹s rolls as a prisoner of war until May 1783,
when it was learned that he had joined the Americans in Philadelphia
in Dec. 1782.
(9) hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg, 12 Kriegsministerium
8807,8810,8814,8815,8824,8834,8836A,8836B,8836C,8837A,8837B,8838,8839,8843,8848,8857,8868,8869,8878;SR
313,471,555,556,557A,816,817,818,832. This research has been greatly
helped by the Hetrina volumes, which guided me to the pertinent
sources: Hessische Truppen im amerikanischen Unabhaengigkeitskrieg
[Hetrina], ed. Inge Auerbach and Otto Froehlich (Marburg 1976).
(10) From Africa: Anthony; from Senegal: John Wilkinson;
from Guinea: William Rockwell, John Hunter, and Peter; from the
West Indies: George Adam, Jacques, Pompy Prontorf, Caesar Tschu,
John Robinson (Peters) and William Morrison (antigua); from Lisbon:
Anthony Made.
(11) In 1740 John Martin Boltzius, the German pastor
at Ebeneezer, could say that many S.C. plantations had no whites
at all, being managed by American-born slaves.
(12) Because of the Hessian confusion between p
and b and possibly influenced by the French word bonbon (candy),
the scribe wrote Bombon.
(13) Exceptions may have been Thomas Rottger (Rodger?),22
years old, who enlisted from N.C. as a drummer in the Bose Regiment
in April 1778, and deserted during the same month, and Peter Schott
(Scott?), who was recruited by the Ditfurth Regiment on 29 July
1780. In neither case is the race indicated. Whereas there is
no evidence of enlistments in N.C., Johann Ewald describes a horde
of black camp followers with Cornwallis¹ troop as they retreated
through that state. Johann Ewald, Diary of the American War, trans
J.P. Tustin (NewHaven, 1979), p. 305. The manuscript of this fascinating
diary has been donated to the Citadel, Charleston.
(14) Draft lists in Hessia included all young men
³not under 5 feet 6 inches , or 5 feet 4 inches if still
growing.² Atwood, Hessians, p.21
(15) The word Gemeiner (private) seems to have included
Fusilier, Musquetier, and Grenadier.
(16) Philip Gais was reassigned as private when
John Peter was appointed drummer on 24 June 1780, the drummer
Philip Vonderwege became a musketeer when displaced by John Robinson,and
Rohr was reassigned as a musketeer when George of Georgia enrolled
as drummer in Dec. 1781. When Wallace and George Jr. were recruited
as drummers on 26 June 1780, Ernst Schaaf and Johann Graus were
reassigned as musketeers and , when London and George joined a
month later, Loeffler and Kring were reassigned as musketeers.
(17) Cornwallis of S.C. was wounded during the siege
of Savannah in Oct. 1779
(18) Quarles, Negro in the Revolution pp. 29-30,
shows that many blacks died of small pox.
(19) Although they have just appeared on the rolls
as captured, they may have been captured earlier, possible the
previous year at Yorktown.
(20) Col. von Porbeck lost nineteen men to desertion
in March 1782 immediately after Gov. John Martin of Georgia issued
a proclamation in German offering 200 acres of land, a good cow,
and a brood sow to any Hessian who would change sides. See George
F. Jones, ³Georgia¹s German-langauge Proclamation: An
Appeal to the Hessians to Desert,² Reports of the Society
for the History of the Germans in Maryland, forthcoming.
(21) At least a third of the deserters from von
Porbeck¹s regiment were not Hessian but natives of places
as far as Alsace, Bavaria, Bohemia, Brandenburg, Cologne, Mainz,
the Palatinate, Pomerania, Saarbruecken, Saxony, Silesia, Speyer,
Sweden, Waldeck, and Worms.
(22) George Seume, a Saxon theological student who
had been illegally impressed by Hessian recruiters, wrote a harrowing
account of a gauntlet he had witnessed when a guard helped some
prisoners escape before going to America.
(23) To prevent desertion, Savannah was closely
patrolled by the Royal Militia, consisting of ³Moors²
and Creek Indians, who shot and scalped many would-be deserters.
Jones, ³Georgia¹s German-language Proclamation.²
(24) Thomas Dueck of Charleston, aged 15, was recruited
in Nov. 1783 after hostilities had ended.
(25) In the journal of the Hessian Grenadier Battalion
Platte for 1780, Carl Bauer mentions the great number of blacks
who joined the British after the capture of Charleston either
for lack of food or to escape their masters. hessisches Staatsarchiv
Marburg, 12 Kriegsministerium I B a 16, pp. 291-292
(26) The poverty of the American troops is well
described by the Hessian officer Johann Ewald, who served throughout
the Revolution. Ewald, Diary of the American War, pp. 340-341.
(27) In the journal mentioned in note 25, Bauer
gives a compassionate description of the pitiable life of the
slaves on the rice plantations in S.C. Capt. Andreas Wiederholdt
even believed the black the mental equal of the white. M.D. Learned
and C. Grosse, Tagebuch des Capt. Wiederholdt, America Germanica
IV (1902), p 51 Lt. Peter Boehm has supplied me with a song showing
the Hessian soldiers compassion for the blacks: ³Es traf
bloss eine grosse Zahl/ Von Negren bei uns ein,/ Doch ohne Kleidung,
ohne Brod/ Sind sie vergnuegt mit Reis./ Der Scwarze kennet keine
Not,/ Weil er vom Glueck nicht weiss.²
(28) M. Rischmann, ³Mohren als Spielleute und
Musiker in der preussischen Armee² Zeitschrift Fuer Heereskunde
und Uniformkunde (Juli, Aug., Sept. 1936), pp. 82-84.
(29) In contrast to the eighty three drummers, I
havefound only three fifers: Penn of Charleston, William Rockwell
of Guinea, and Jacob Thon of Deban. John Stevens of James island,
enlisted as a fifer but became a drummer two years later.
(30) Many also served on the British side. According
to James W. St.G. Walker, ³Blacks as American Loyalists:
The Slaves¹ War for Independence² Historical Reflections
II (1975), p.58, nearly every Loyalist regiment had black drummers.
Walker (pp. 51-67) convincingly shows that most blacks were not
fighting for national independence, as Quarles might lead some
to believe.
(31) Zolldirecktor i. R. Woringer, ³Mohren
als Musiker und Spielleute² Zeitschrift Fuer Heereskunde
und Uniformkunde (Jan., Feb.,Marz., 1937), p.27 There is little
reason to hope for that most of the black Hessians fared any better
than other blacks, whose shameful treatment is described by Mary
Beth Norton in ³The Fate of Some Black Loyalists of the American
revolution² The Journal of Negro History 58 (1973): 402-426.
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