John Laurens, originally from South Carolina, was an American statesman in the American Revolution. He was remembered most for enlisting slaves to fight for the U.S as a way to earn their freedom. Fans of the musical ‘Hamilton’ will also remember him getting shot in a duel with Charles Lee and his exceptionally close relationship with Alexander Hamilton.
After the Battle of Brandywine, Laurens was made an aide-de-camp to General Washington. This position was essentially a personal assistant or secretary. he became friends with other people of the same rank such as Hamilton and General Lafayette. As British attack increased in Southern States, Laurens had the idea to arm slaves and give them freedom as a reward for their service in the army. In 1778 he asked his father to put the 40 slaves he would have inherited into a brigade. The next year, in March 1779, Congress approved Laurens’ idea and he was sent to recruit a regiment of 3000 black soldiers. Laurens was different from other revolutionary leaders in South Carolina as he believed that black and white people could both aspire to freedom in a republican society.
On 23rd December 1778, Laurens dueled with General Charles Lee after Lee started slandering Washington’s character to anybody who would listen. Laurens’ first shot wounded Lee in the side and he was satisfied. The duel was ended by the men’s seconds, Alexander Hamilton and Evan Edwards, before another shot was fired.
Laurens and Hamilton’s relationship has been studied and debated by many historians and it is still not clear if they were close friends or if they were lovers. Laurens did not outwardly show attraction to women even as an adolescent. Although he eventually married, it was to preserve the legitimacy of a child conceived out of wedlock with Martha Manning and Laurens biographer Gregory D. Massey states that he “reserved his primary emotional commitments for other men.” It was not uncommon at this time for men to write letters to one another with emotional language in them, however, the nature of the letters between the two raises speculation of homosexuality that cant be definitively answered. Before marrying Elizabeth Schuyler, Hamilton reassured Laurens that their relationship would not change;
“In spite of Schuylers black eyes, I have still a part for the public and another for you; so your impatience to have me married is misplaced; a strange cure by the way, as if after matrimony I was to be less devoted than I am now.”
Many letters written by Laurens have been lost or destroyed. This has led to some scholars to believe that Laurens’ letters were more explicit and intense than Hamilton’s and therefore destroyed by his family.
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