“L” is for Laurens, Henry (1724-1792). Merchant, planter, statesman, diplomat. A Charleston native, Laurens clerked in a London countinghouse before and establishing himself in the Charleston business community. Through trade and planting he became one of the wealthiest men in America. In 1775 he was elected president of South Carolina’s Provincial Congress and in 1777 elected to the Continental Congress where he served one year as its president. In 1779 Congress selected Laurens to travel to Holland to secure a loan and an alliance with the Dutch. He was captured by a British warship and imprisoned in the Tower of London as a traitor. He was later paroled and helped negotiate the preliminary peace treaty between the United States and Britain. Henry Laurens’s health had been ruined by his imprisonment and he retired from public life.
“L” is for Laurens, Henry (1724-1792)
