Henry Laurens

Henry Laurens
Laurens depicted by Lemuel Francis Abbott, 1781 or 1784
5th President of the Continental Congress
In office
November 1, 1777 – December 9, 1778
Preceded byJohn Hancock
Succeeded byJohn Jay
Vice President of South Carolina
In office
March 26, 1776 – June 27, 1777
PresidentJohn Rutledge
Preceded byOffice Established
Succeeded byJames Parsons
President of the
South Carolina Committee on Safety
In office
January 9, 1775 – March 26, 1776
MonarchGeorge III
Preceded byWilliam Campbell
As governor of South Carolina
Succeeded byJohn Rutledge
As president of South Carolina
Personal details
Born(1724-03-06)March 6, 1724
Charleston, Province of South Carolina
DiedDecember 8, 1792(1792-12-08) (aged 68)
Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.
SpouseEleanor Delamere Ball Laurens (m. 1750; d. 1770)
Children13 or more, including John Laurens, Martha Laurens Ramsay, Henry Laurens, Jr., and Mary Eleanor Laurens Pinckney
Signature
Portrait of Laurens by John Singleton Copley (U.S. National Portrait Gallery NPG.65.45)

Henry Laurens (March 6, 1724 [O.S. February 24, 1723] – December 8, 1792) was an American Founding Father,[1][2][3] merchant, slave trader, and rice planter from South Carolina who became a political leader during the Revolutionary War. A delegate to the Second Continental Congress, Laurens succeeded John Hancock as its president. He was a signatory to the Articles of Confederation and, as president, presided over its passage.

Laurens had earned great wealth as a partner in the largest slave-trading house in North America, Austin and Laurens. In the 1750s alone, this Charleston firm oversaw the sale of more than 8,000 enslaved Africans.[4] Laurens served for a time as vice president of South Carolina and as the United States minister to the Netherlands during the Revolutionary War. He was captured at sea by the British and imprisoned for a little more than a year in the Tower of London. His oldest son, John Laurens, was an aide-de-camp to George Washington and a colonel in the Continental Army.

  1. ^ Kelly, Joseph P. (April 2006). "Henry Laurens: The Southern Man of Conscience in History". The South Carolina Historical Magazine. 107 (2): 82–123. JSTOR 27570804. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  2. ^ Brammer, Robert (13 May 2020). "Henry Laurens, the Founding Father Who Was Imprisoned in the Tower of London". loc.gov. Library of Congress. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  3. ^ Neville, Gabriel (1 August 2019). "The Tragedy of Henry Laurens". allthingsliberty.com. Journal of the American Revolution. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  4. ^ "Slavery and Justice: Report of the Brown University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice" (PDF). Brown University. October 2006.

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