John Laurens

John Laurens (October 28, 1754 - August 27, 1782) was an American soldier and statesman from South Carolina during the Revolutionary War.

Early life

John was born to Henry Laurens and Eleanor Ball in Charleston, South Carolina. He was the eldest of their five children who survived infancy. After tutoring at home and the death of his mother in 1770, John and his two younger brothers were taken by their father to England. John completed his education in Europe, first in London in 1771, then in Geneva, Switzerland in 1772. As a youth, John expressed considerable interest in science and medicine, but he yielded to his father's wish that he study law. In August of 1774 he returned to London to do so. His father returned to America but refused to let John return until two years later. In late 1776, John was obliged, "out of pity," to marry Martha Manning, the daughter of one of his father's London agents, and in December he sailed for Charleston. He left his wife behind, pregnant with a daughter who would be born in February and whom he would never see. In the summer of 1777, he accompanied his father, Henry Laurens, on the trip to Philadelphia where Henry was to serve in the Continental Congress and where in spite of his father's strong objections, John continued on to Washington's camp as a volunteer.

1777-1780

Laurens joined the main army of the Continental Army and within a month, following the Battle of Brandywine, was made officially an aide-de-camp to General Washington with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He became very good friends with his fellow aides, Alexander Hamilton, and with the Marquis de Lafayette. He also gave the first demonstrations of his tendency to reckless courage at the Battles of Brandywine, Germantown in which he was wounded, and Monmouth where his horse was shot out from under him. After the battle of Brandywine Lafayette observed that, "It was not his fault that he was not killed or wounded . . . he did every thing that was necessary to procure one or the other."

As the British stepped up operations in the South, Laurens, who had long argued that "We Americans at least in the Southern Colonies, cannot contend with a good Grace, for Liberty, until we shall have enfranchised our Slaves," promoted the idea of arming slaves and granting them freedom in return for their service, and in early 1778 requested, as a start, 40 slaves from his father, which Henry, now President of the Continental Congress, granted but with such serious reservations about the practicality that John temporarily relinquished the project. In March 1779 Congress approved this idea, commissioned him Lieutenant Colonel, and sent him south to implement a regiment of 3000. He won election to the South Carolina House of Representatives, and introduced his black regiment plan in 1779 and 1780 (and again in 1782) only to meet overwhelming rejection each time, particularly from Governor Rutledge and Christopher Gadsden. His belief that blacks shared a similar nature with whites and could aspire to freedom in a republican society set Laurens apart from other leaders in revolutionary South Carolina. ^{[http://earlyamerica.com/review/2003_winter_spring/slavery_liberty.htm]}

In 1779, when the British threatened Charleston, Governor Rutledge proposed to surrender the city with the condition that Carolina become neutral in the war. Laurens loudly and critically opposed the idea, and the British were repulsed. That fall he commanded an infantry regiment in General Lincoln's failed assault on Savannah, Georgia. John became a prisoner in May of 1780 with the fall of Charleston, was shipped to Philadelphia, but was on "parole" so he was able to see his father before Henry embarked for Holland in search of loans, only to be seized by a British ship and put in the Tower of London. John was exchanged in November, and in December, Congress named him a special minister to France.

1781–1782

Laurens was sent to Paris by George Washington in March 1781 and gained French assurances that their navy would support American operations in that year. He also arranged a loan and supplies from the Dutch before returning home in May. Laurens' persistence to the King of France and his unbridled audacity in insisting for French aid is the only reason monies were received from France. He boldly stated that unless the American Continental Army received aid, the Americans might be forced to fight for the British against France. He returned home in time to see the French fleet arrive and to join Washington at the siege of Yorktown. Young Laurens was the principal spokesman for negotiating General Cornwallis's surrender.

Laurens returned to South Carolina and served General Nathanael Greene by creating and operating a network of spies that tracked British operations in and around Charleston. But, in August 1782, his reckless nature came to the fore again. Learning of a British force movement to gather supplies, he sent a quick note to Greene and left his post to join Mordecai Gist in an attempt to intercept them. He was killed in a useless skirmish, the Battle of the Combahee River, that did nothing to alter the course of the war. He was shot from the saddle and died on August 27, 1782, only a few weeks before the British finally withdrew from Charlseton. He was buried on the Stock plantation, where the last night of his life he had been entertaining the women of the family, and after Henry Laurens returned from his long imprisonment, the body was moved to the family estate, called Mepkin, near Moncks Corner.

Connection to Thomas Paine

According to Daniel Wheeler's "Life and Writings of Thomas Paine", Volume 1 (of 10, Vincent & Parke, 1908) p. 26-27: Thomas Paine accompanied Col. Laurens to France and is credited with initiating the mission, which landed in France in March 1781 and returned to America in August with 2.5 livres in silver, as part of a "present" of 6 million and a loan of 10 million. The meetings with the French king were most likely conducted in the company and under the influence of Benjamin Franklin. Upon returning to the United State with this highly welcomed cargo Thomas Paine, and probably Col Laurens, "positively objected" that General Washington should propose that Congress remunerate him for his services, for fear of setting "a bad precedent and an improper mode."

Modern perspectives

Laurens's proposal for black troops in Carolina was portrayed in the fictional account in the 2000 movie "The Patriot", and some of his words and actions went into the creation of the Benjamin Martin character in the film. In another aspect of the movie the family's plantation home at Mepkin was burned as a British retaliation, and his younger siblings escaped at night.

There are also modern reports circulated that John Laurens had a homosexual relationship with Alexander Hamilton. These reports are based upon letters Hamilton wrote Laurens during a period in which Laurens was absent from the camp. In preparing a biography, Hamilton's family actually crossed out parts of letters they each sent one another. Whether their relationship was sexual or not is unknown -- sodomy was a punishable offence in all thirteen colonies at the time, and so even if it had been they would have been most cautious, and it is likely that the truth will never be known. Though the language in the letters was not uncommon among those of the same sex in this historical period, Hamilton was never as emotionally open with any other man in his lifetime, and the depths of sentiment are equalled only in letters he wrote to his wife Eliza. On the other hand, Hamilton knew no other peer in similar rank, age, and war experience with whom to share a deep platonic relationship. Further, in the same letter that is interpreted by some modern students as most cause for suspicion, Hamilton actually requests Laurens find him a wife while away, and goes on with a detailed description of characteristics she should have. Additionally, whether Laurens held anything but platonic feelings for Hamilton appears unlikely, given not only the lack of any suspect letters by him, but also Laurens' strong relationship with his father, and Washington's comment that during their many months together he had found Laurens "without flaw,". For years it was rumored that a statue of the two stood as part of the larger Marquis de Lafayette statue in Lafayette Park, across from the White House in Washington, D.C., depicted clasping hands and congratulating each other after capturing the British redoubt at Yorktown. While the statue at one time served as a popular gay rendezvous, the figures on the west side of the Marquis de Lafayette statue actually depict Louis Le Bègue Duportail and Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, the Comte de Rochambeau.

Places, institutions, etc. named for Laurens

**Laurens County, Georgia

Further reading

*Gregory D. Massey; "John Laurens and the American Revolution"; 2000, University of South Carolina Press; ISBN 1-57003-330-7.
*David D. Wallace; "The Life of Henry Laurens: With a Sketch of the Life of Lieutenant Colonel John Laurens"; 1967, Russell & Russell Publishers, ISBN 0-8462-1015-0.
*Henry Wiencek; "An Imperfect God"; 2003, Farrar, Straus And Giroux, ISBN 978-0-374-52951-2 . Chapter 6

External links

* [http://www.familytales.org/results.php?tla=jol John Laurens Letters]