John Laurens

Born: October 28, 1754 Died: August 27, 1782

John Laurens was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1754. He was the fourth of twelve children, but the first to live and reach maturity. His father, Henry Laurens, was one of the wealthiest people in America and he owned several plantations and hundreds of enslaved people. Henry admired George Washington and was the president of the continental congress, which met in York, Pennsylvania.

John Laurens had a very good education at Geneva, in Switzerland, and was studying law in London when the war began. After reading Common Sense by Thomas Paine he desperately wanted to go to America and join the continental army. His father did not approve but he went anyway and arrived in April of 1777.

Laurens fought his first battle on September 11 of 1777, and was involved in quite a few more after that. He was appointed an aide-de-camp to Washington with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Washington appreciated his bravery, intelligence, and writing skills. He had a courageous reputation, although he was sometimes called a rash young man. John Laurens dreamed of enlisting enslaved people into the continental army. He thought they would form “Black Battalions” and in return be offered their personal freedom. Some people think it is very strange that this idea came from the son of one of the largest plantation owners in the south, but he was very persistent about it.

John Laurens died in 1782 after being shot outside of Charleston in a small skirmish between the British and American forces right around the end of the revolutionary war.