Henry Laurens

Henry Laurens was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1724, and rose to become one of the wealthiest merchants and planters in colonial America. His fortune was built substantially on the Atlantic trade, including the slave trade, a fact that Laurens himself later acknowledged with discomfort as his political views evolved during the Revolutionary period. By the 1770s he had become deeply engaged in South Carolina politics and was recognized as one of the colony's leading figures, which led to his selection as a delegate to the Continental Congress.

Laurens served as President of the Continental Congress from 1777 to 1778, including the difficult period when Congress sat in York, Pennsylvania, following the British capture of Philadelphia. During his presidency, he presided over the adoption of the Articles of Confederation, the document that formalized the alliance among the thirteen states and established the first framework of American federal governance. It was painstaking and contentious work, requiring him to manage delegates from states with sharply different interests and to maintain the functioning of government while the army at Valley Forge fought for its survival. After leaving the presidency, Laurens was dispatched as a diplomatic envoy to the Netherlands to secure loans and recognition. In 1780, the ship carrying him was captured by the British, and he was imprisoned in the Tower of London — the only American held there during the Revolution.

Laurens was eventually released in a prisoner exchange for General Cornwallis in 1781 and participated in the preliminary peace negotiations in Paris. He returned to South Carolina after the war, his health weakened by his imprisonment. He died in 1792, having left instructions that his body be cremated rather than buried — an unusual request for the era that reflected his lifelong independence of mind. His career spanned the founding generation's most consequential decisions, and his presidency of Congress during the York period placed him at the center of American government during one of its most vulnerable hours.