John Laurens

John Laurens (1754–1782) was an American officer born in Charleston, South Carolina, and educated in Europe. The son of Revolutionary leader Henry Laurens, John returned from Europe to join the Continental Army in 1777. As a lieutenant colonel and aide-de-camp to George Washington, Laurens fought at Brandywine and Germantown. He felt strongly that, in order to fulfill the ideals of the American Revolution, slavery had to be abolished. In 1778 Laurens proposed that slaves in the southern states be recruited to fight in the Revolution and be freed when they completed their military service. The proposal was considered but rejected. It was revisited in 1779 and accepted with the provision that South Carolina and Georgia had to agree. Laurens took leave to go to South Carolina to recruit enslaved men. Unfortunately, the states rejected his proposal. After going to France to gain support for the Continental Army, Laurens returned to the states where he participated in the siege of Yorktown and negotiated Cornwallis’s surrender. Although Yorktown was the last major battle of the American Revolution, Laurens was killed in a skirmish at Combahee Ferry, South Carolina, in August 1782.