This edition begins a series of profiles to introduce some of the historical characters readers will meet when the fifth historical novel in the Yankee Doodle Spies series is released in 2025. One of the first historical characters the reader will encounter is Henry Laurens, a little-known but essential South Carolina founder who became the Continental Congress's president.
Man of Means
Laurens was born the son of a wealthy Huguenot merchant, John Laurens, in 1724. After his early education in South Carolina, his father sent him to Britain, where he learned about managing money and accounts. His experience in England served him well when he returned to South Carolina a few years later, and combined with his strong work ethic, it set him on the path to becoming one of the colony's most successful merchants. In just a few years, Laurens expanded his interests by purchasing plantations and increasing his stake in the rice trade, but unfortunately, his biggest earnings came from the slave trade.
Husband and Father
In 1750, Laurens married the daughter of a wealthy South Carolina rice planter. Eleanor Ball bore thirteen children before dying in 1770, just after giving birth to her last child. Most of his children died young, but at least four reached adulthood, and one, John Laurens, gained prominence during the American Revolution.
Militia Leader
Laurens joined the South Carolina militia and rose to lieutenant colonel during wars against the Cherokee and the French and Indian War. Like many of the wealthy planter class, he also served in the colonial assembly, where he was considered a conservative and leaned Tory.
Times of Trouble
As tensions between Britain and the colonies grew worse, Laurens was attracted to the Whigs but faced attacks from both sides. A mob of radicals stormed his house and tore it apart searching for stamped products. Meanwhile, British Customs officials confiscated three of Laurens's merchant ships under the Townshend Acts. This increased his sympathy for the Whigs, and he published a letter criticizing the British for imposing restrictions on American trade. However, he stayed apart from those pushing for direct action or independence.
A trip to London in 1771 to check his sons' education changed everything. Incensed by the corruption in British society, Laurens grew closer to the Whigs. Three years later, when he returned to America, he became a supporter of independence.
Carolina Politics
By 1775, the rebellion was in full swing, and the cautious Laurens was fully committed to the cause. He immersed himself in active politics and was elected to South Carolina's Provincial Congress—an illegal body that soon replaced royal authority. Laurens led the South Carolina Committee of Safety, a crucial role as the colonies prepared for armed conflict with Britain. He clashed with some of the more radical politicians in the state when he championed property rights in the state's new constitution, even protecting Loyalists' property from confiscation. Laurens served as the vice president of South Carolina's new government from March 1776 to June 1777.
National Figure
Although long a fixture in his home state, Henry Laurens stepped onto the national stage in June 1777 when he joined the Second Continental Congress as a delegate from South Carolina. The following November, he succeeded John Hancock as president of Congress—a role similar to that of a speaker of the house. He introduced many important bills and led the often contentious factions during his time. His most notable achievements include the Articles of Confederation and the American alliance with France. It is as president of Congress that we meet Laurens in my novel, The Reluctant Spy.
Henry Laurens, President of the Continental Congress
President of Congress
The South Carolina native displayed the typical Southern aristocratic sense of honor. This, combined with a meticulous attention to detail and a steadfast stance against corruption, whether real or perceived, rubbed many of his peers the wrong way. President Laurens was highly respected but never loved. He would take on anyone, including Robert Morris. The influential Morris swayed many against Laurens when he pushed for an investigation into his actions as the financier of the American Revolution. Laurens's involvement in the corruption accusations against the American agent in Paris, Silas Deane, also upset many. By December 1778, Laurens had enough and resigned as president, being replaced by fellow Huguenot John Jay—the father of American counterintelligence.
Financier Robert Morris
Diplomat and Prisoner
A year later, Laurens shifted from being a controversial figure on the national stage to one on the international stage when he resigned from his Congressional seat to serve as the American commissioner to the Netherlands. However, the British intercepted his ship off the coast of Newfoundland. The clever Laurens quickly threw the trunk full of official dispatches into the ocean, but the Royal Navy recovered them. The Netherlands' role in helping America was revealed, giving London a reason for war.
Laurens was taken to London, charged with treason, and imprisoned in the Tower of London to suffer without adequate food or medical care until December 1781, when he was exchanged for British General Charles, Lord Cornwallis, who had been captured at Yorktown the previous October.
Envoy
But there was no rest for the sick and weary ex-prisoner. Upon release, he sailed to Amsterdam to settle his affairs with the Dutch. Then Congress directed Laurens to Paris, where he joined Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and now former Congressional president John Jay in negotiating a peace treaty. He missed the final negotiations and the official signing because he was sent back to London to handle business matters, and when peace was achieved, the two nations would resume trading. He stayed in London as an ex officio representative until formal diplomatic relations were established. One wonders how envoy Laurens felt dealing with his former jailers and tormentors—or how they felt dealing with the traitor and former prisoner!
Signing the Treaty of Paris
Up from the Ashes
By 1784, John Laurens was back in
South Carolina. But he returned to a state devastated by years of brutal warfare and British occupation. His mansion in Charleston had been destroyed, and his businesses were also in ruins—he had lost the equivalent of many millions of dollars in service to his country. He spent his remaining years rebuilding the family fortune, refusing public offices of all kinds. He even declined to represent South Carolina at the Constitutional Convention.
Laurens had his reasons. He was aging, and his health was declining. But the likely cause was the blow he suffered when he learned his son, Colonel John Laurens (a staunch opponent of slavery), had died of wounds sustained in a minor skirmish in 1782. So, the elder Laurens stayed in his native state, rebuilding his holdings until his death on December 8, 1792.
Although tarnished by his deep involvement in the slave trade, the former militia leader, businessman, slave trader, planter, politician, and statesman made many contributions to the nation's founding—as did his sacrifices. He should be remembered for both, but celebrated for his dedicated service to his country.
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