Henry Laurens Henry Laurens ( December 8 , 1792 ) was an American merchant and rice planter from South Carolina who became a political leader during the Revolutionary War . A delegate to the Second Continental Congress , Laurens succeeded John Hancock as President of the Congress . He was a signatory to the Articles of Confederation and President when the constitution was passed on November 15 , 1777 . Laurens had earned great wealth as a partner in the largest slave - trading house in North America ( Austin and Laurens ) . In the 1750s alone , this Charleston firm oversaw the sale of more than 8 , 000 enslaved Africans . He was for a time Vice - President of South Carolina and a diplomat to the Netherlands during the Revolutionary War . He was captured at sea and imprisoned for some time by the British in the Tower of London . His son John Laurens , a colonel in the Continental Army and officer on Washington ' s staff , believed that Americans could not fight for their own freedom while holding slaves . In 1779 , he persuaded the Continental Congress to authorize the recruitment of a brigade ( 3000 men ) of slaves , who would be given their freedom after the war . However , when he presented it to them , the South Carolina Provincial Congress overwhelmingly rejected the proposal , and instead voted to use confiscated slaves as payment to recruit more white soldiers . John Laurens was killed in a skirmish in South Carolina in 1782 . Marriage and family . He married Eleanor Ball , also of a South Carolina rice planter family . They had several children , and she died young in 1770 . Laurens took their three sons to England for their education , encouraging their oldest , John Laurens , to study law . The young Laurens returned to the United States in 1776 , at the time of the American Revolutionary War . Political career . Laurens served in the militia , as did most able - bodied men in his time . He rose to the rank of Lt . Colonel in the campaigns against the Cherokee Indians in 1757 – 1761 , during the French and Indian War ( also known as the Seven Years War ) . 1757 also marked the first year he was elected to the colonial assembly . Laurens was elected again every year but one until the Revolution replaced the assembly with a state Convention as an interim government . The year he missed was 1773 , when he visited England to arrange for his sons ' educations . He was named to the colony ' s Council in 1764 and 1768 , but declined both times . In 1772 he joined the American Philosophical Society off Philadelphia , and carried on extensive correspondence with other members . As the American Revolution neared , Laurens was at first inclined to support reconciliation with the British Crown . But as conditions deteriorated , he came to fully support the American position . When Carolina began to create a revolutionary government , Laurens was elected to the Provincial Congress , which first met on January 9 , 1775 . He was president of the , and presiding officer of that congress from June until March 1776 . When South Carolina installed a fully independent government , he served as the Vice President of South Carolina from March 1776 to June 27 , 1777 . Henry Laurens was first named a delegate to the Continental Congress on January 10 , 1777 . He served in the Congress from until 1780 . He was the President of the Continental Congress from November 1 , 1777 to December 9 , 1778 . In the fall of 1779 , the Congress named Laurens their minister to the Netherlands . In early 1780 he took up that post and successfully negotiated Dutch support for the war . But on his return voyage to Amsterdam that fall , the British Navy intercepted his ship , the continental packet " Mercury " , off the banks of Newfoundland . Although his dispatches were tossed in the water , they were retrieved by the British , who discovered the draft of a possible U . S . - Dutch treaty prepared by William Lee . This prompted Britain to declare war on the Netherlands , it becoming known as the Fourth Anglo - Dutch War . The British charged Laurens with treason , transported him to England , and imprisoned him in the Tower of London ( he is the only American to have been held prisoner in the Tower ) . His imprisonment was protested by the Americans . In the field , most captives were regarded as prisoners of war , and while conditions were frequently appalling , prisoner exchanges and mail privileges were accepted practice . During his imprisonment , Laurens was assisted by Richard Oswald , his former business partner and the principal owner of Bunce Island . Oswald argued on Laurens ' behalf to the British government . Finally , on December 31 , 1781 he was released in exchange for General Lord Cornwallis and completed his voyage to Amsterdam . He helped raise funds for the American effort . In a late skirmish during the war , Laurens ' oldest son John was killed in 1782 . He had supported enlisting and freeing slaves for the war effort and suggested to his father that he begin with the 40 he stood to inherit . He urged his father to free their slaves . After the war , Henry Laurens manumitted all his 260 slaves . In 1783 Laurens was sent to Paris as one of the Peace Commissioners for the negotiations leading to the Treaty of Paris . While he was not a signatory of the primary treaty , he was instrumental in reaching the secondary accords that resolved issues related to the Netherlands and Spain . Richard Oswald , a big former partner of Laurens in the slave trade , was the principal negotiator for the British during the Paris peace talks . Laurens generally retired from public life in 1784 . He was sought for a return to the Continental Congress , the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and the state assembly , but he declined all of these positions . He did serve in the state convention of 1788 , where he voted to ratify the United States Constitution . Later events . The British occupying forces from Charleston had burned the main home at Mepkin during the war . When Laurens and his family returned in 1784 , they lived in an outbuilding while the great house was rebuilt . He lived there the rest of his life , working to recover the estimated £40 , 000 that the revolution had cost him ( equivalent to about $ 3 , 500 , 000 in 2000 values ) . Death and cremation . After Laurens died December 8 , 1792 at his estate , Mepkin , and stated in his will he wished to be cremated , and his ashes be interred at his estate . It ' s reported that he was the first formal cremation in United States . Afterward , the estate passed through several hands . Large portions of the estate still exist , and are used today as a Trappist abbey .