Henry Laurens (1724-1792) was a South Carolina merchant, politician, and slave trader who served in the Second Continental Congress. En route to Holland in 1780, where Congress had dispatched him to form a political alliance with the Dutch and discuss a loan to fund the U.S. war debt, he was captured at sea by the British and spent over a year in the Tower of London, charged with treason. He returned home in 1785, where poor health as a result of his confinement prevented him from future political service, with the exception of attending the 1788 South Carolina ratifying convention.
