Josefa Cassimo

Black Hessians: Transatlantic Migration and Dependency in the Age of Revolutions 

My project examines the so-called Black Hessians, a group of Black soldiers, servants, and their families who served in Hessian troops during the American Revolutionary War before migrating to Germany. While scholarship acknowledges their presence, fundamental questions regarding their social status, agency, and dependency remain unresolved. This study provides the first systematic analysis of their experiences, legal status, and racialization within the Holy Roman Empire. 
Situating German territories within transatlantic networks of migration and racialization, this research repositions them as active participants in shaping racial ideologies rather than passive observers. Drawing on Black Atlantic and diaspora studies, the project reconstructs Black voices from white-dominated archives, while Critical Race Theory and Whiteness Studies interrogate racial constructs and dependency studies challenge the rigid binary of free versus enslaved labor. 
The study contributes to debates on early modern migration, military history, and the history of race, demonstrating how historical processes of racialization remain essential for understanding contemporary discussions of inequality, mobility, and belonging. 

2023–2025 
Research MA in History (Cities, Migration and Global Interdependence), Leiden University

2022 
Erasmus Visiting Student, Trinity College Dublin

2019–2023 
BA in History (Minor: Economics), University of Hamburg 

2022–2023 
Student Assistant, Research Center "Hamburgs (post-)Colonial Legacy" 

2021–2023 
Teaching Assistant, History Department, University of Hamburg