The greatest patriots and heroes fight and struggle for many years if necessary in service to a noble cause. That was true of John Laurens, an almost forgotten hero of the American Revolution whose example can and should inspire us.
Laurens was a trusted member of George Washington’s staff, cited by the Marquis de Lafayette for his reckless courage on the battlefield, and was an extremely dear friend of Alexander Hamilton’s. There were two causes Laurens shared with these three men. Firstly, of course, and most strongly, was the fight for American independence, but secondly, they all aimed to see slavery abolished.
Laurens was the most passionate in this latter cause out of the four, and much less inclined to be satisfied with a compromise that might tend toward slavery’s abolition in the future. But it is undeniably true that these four men were able to accomplish so much precisely because they were passionate about what they believed to be right. Two passages from Laurens’s letters to his cherished friend Hamilton, who was a willing listener on the subject of raising American troops among slaves and former slaves, can help emphasize what I mean.
In 1779, Lt. Col. Laurens poured out his frustrations in a letter to Hamilton, but his complaints reveal how hard he was fighting to convince the authorities to create regiments of black slaves who would be promised freedom. It is worth noting that his plan was carried out to some degree in the Continental Army, which was racially integrated and enabled some slaves to obtain freedom through service, but his dream of a regiment of Southern slaves fighting for freedom (the “black levies”) failed repeatedly in the strongly pro-slavery states. Laurens’s own father wouldn’t free his slaves and originally opposed the plan. So Laurens wrote:
[It] appears to me that I sh[ould] be inexcusable in the light of a Citizen if I did not continue my utmost efforts for carrying the plan of black levies into execution, while there remains the smallest hope of success. Our army is reduced to nothing almost by the departure of the Virginians; Scots arrival will scarcely restore us to our ancient number; if the Enemy destine the Reinforcements from G. B. for this quarter, as in policy they ought to do, that number will be insufficient for the security of our country… The house of Representatives have had a longer recess than usual occasioned by the number of members in the field…I intend to qualify—and make a final effort. Oh that I were a Demosthenes—the Athenians never deserved more bitter exprobration than my Countrymen.
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Laurens didn’t want slaves simply for the number of bodies added to the Army. He was extremely offended when his father tried to convince him to recruit more white men and give up the plan. So in 1782, as the war was drawing to a close, Laurens wrote again to Hamilton on the same subject:
I had, in fact, resumed the black project, as you were informed, and urged the matter very strenuously, both to our privy council and legislative body; but I was out-voted, having only reason on my side, and being opposed by a triple-headed monster that shed the baneful influence of Avarice, prejudice, and pusillanimity in all our Assemblies. It was some consolation to me, however, to find that philosophy and truth had made some little progress since my last effort, as I obtained twice as many suffrages as before.
Sadly, Laurens was killed on August 27, 1782, in a skirmish following a British ambush. He gave his life in the cause of freedom. And he left behind him an exceptional legacy of practicing what he preached, of truly pouring himself into his efforts to obtain liberty and justice for all, of affirming equal rights for all men, black and white. No matter how many times he failed, he tried again and again. He was never so discouraged that he gave up, and his efforts inspired others who carried on the work of building a new nation and abolishing slavery.
That is the sort of dedication we should and could have. After four years of the Biden administration, America seemed in a hopeless case, yet patriots carried the 2024 election. Now we face the daunting tasks of rebuilding America and winning the culture war. Only if we have the persistence, courage, and devotion of a John Laurens will we succeed.
