♪ France had by now quietly pledged to provide some arms and money-- but open support would require the Congress to cut all ties to Britain.

"Every day," John Adams wrote to a friend, independence "rolls in upon us like a torrent."

On May 15th, Congress called upon all 13 colonies to form their own governments.

By adopting new constitutions, the colonies would turn themselves into sovereign States.

♪ The next day, delegates learned that the British, desperate and without European allies, had hired thousands of foreign troops to help crush the rebellion.

Some German princes had agreed to provide them--for a price.

Most came from Hessen-Kassel and Hessen-Hanau, so the Americans would call them all "Hessians."

"O Britons," one Rhode Islander lamented, "how art you fallen that you hire foreigners to cut your children's throats."

Voice: The British nation have proceeded to the last extremity.

And we should expect a severe trial this summer, with Britons, Hessians, Indians, Negroes, and every other butcher the gracious King of Britain can hire against us.

Josiah Bartlett, New Hampshire.

Friederike Baer: The Americans are using the British government's decision to hire foreign soldiers in the war against British subjects, if they look at this as a civil war to some extent.

They're using this as a tool to rile up resistance against Britain, to mobilize men to, basically, take up arms against these invaders, and ultimately to support independence.