to a most lovely child,

i’m back for a little bit to share what i’ve learned about Francis Henderson Sr’s wife and kids after he moved to Newport, Rhode Island. i am unsure if any of this information has been discovered and shared in the time i’ve been gone, and if so, i’m sorry for repeating information. i haven’t been on Tumblr since my last post, iirc, and i don’t feel like checking, i’m sorry!

For quick background, in Francis Sr’s letters to John Adams, he says that he is living in Rhode Island and briefly visiting South Carolina. Reminiscences of Abbeville also states that Francis Sr lived in Newport and vacationed in South Carolina during the summer. It also states that after he left Junior in Scotland and moved to Rhode Island, he got remarried and had children.

The first of this information is a Newport census report from 1850.

Listed is a 71-year-old man named Francis Henderson, who it says was born in Scotland, which matches Frances Laurens’ ex-husband. Included in the household is a 53-year-old woman named Elizabeth, a woman named Janet, and a man named Robert, both in their twenties. Also included is a woman named Jane Armstrong, who it says was born in Ireland.

Using this information, I was able to find a Find A Grave connected. The cemetery the grave is connected in is located in Newport.

The grave lists three people, Francis Henderson, his wife Elizabeth Gouffran, and their daughter Janet Carruthers. There is a discrepancy, as their graves say Francis died at 80 on March 24, 1853, and Elizabeth died at 75 on March 7, 1855, while the census states they were 71 and 53 in 1850. Janet’s age is also discrepent, but I’m inclined to believe these are the same people, and I’m more inclined to believe that their graves display their accurate ages. This estimates his birth year as 1773 / 1774, meaning he was 21 or 22 when he married 18-year-old Frances Laurens.

Find A Grave connects this grave to that of a man named William H. Henderson, born in 1816. If this is the son of Francis Henderson and Elizabeth Gouffran, the H likely stands for Hoggan, as another grave found is for a nine-year-old girl named Elizabeth Hoggan Henderson, the “eldest daughter of Francis & Elizabeth G. Henderson.” A grave for a Robert J., who was listed on the 1850 census, is not connected. However, a Newport record does list the death of a Robert James Henderson, born est. 1826 and died in 1914, and is described as the son of Francis Henderson and Elizabeth G. Henderson.

However, that's not the reason I reblogged this, I did it to show how according Hurrah for Hampton, Francis Henderson Jr did have a son, called Edward Henderson.

Little disclaimer: I don't know what kind of source had the author to make that declaration, I've tried searching the source but at present I'm still unsuccessful, so take it easy!

From my judgement, he was just as sexist as the next man of his day, but I will argue he was a bit more strict on the subject. It is obvious he thought women were not equeal to men, and that men were superior. And he displays a lot of toxic masculinity.

Laurens wrote a letter to his father, sometime either during the Battle of Newport, or the Battle of Rhode Island. It was after the French came to the American coast to become an ally to the beleaguered Continental Army and help fight against the British. Although there was a lot of tension between the Americans and the French, and Laurens uses a rather misogynistic analogy to explain this — claiming women only debated dance, while men discussed the greater revolution;

“—this measure gave much umbrage to the french officers, they conceived their troops injured by our landing first, and talked like women disputing precedence in a country dance, instead of men engaged in pursuing the common interest of two great Nations.”

(source — John Laurens to Henry Laurens, [August 22, 1778])

There is also a case of Laurens hating a spie that was a woman they came across. There was many British deserters that Laurens and his men found, and they would usually give intell on the British army. But when Eliza Clitherall came along, and proved useful — Laurens looked down on her, and thought she was not of much use. While there is the possibility that Laurens disliked her because she was not a good informant, it is more likely that he thought she would not be useful because she was a woman, because there wasn't complaints of her value from any others;

“Loyalist informants from Charleston, a valuable source, frequently refused to give something for nothing.  Laurens furnished them supplies in return for their testimony.  More representative of his spies was Eliza Clitherall […] Clitherall gave Laurens frequent reports of British activity in Charleston.  Laurens regarded Clitherall as an irritant and even suggested to Greene that her services be discontinued.  Still, she continued to provide intelligence, and her efforts proved at least partially successful.”

(source — John Laurens and the American Revolution, by Gregory D. Massey)

This is also heavily present in his relationship with his sisters. As Laurens played an active role in assisting his siblings with their education, so he took it upon himself to also help his sisters become pious and appealing women (How very thoughtful of him,,,). Which didn't even stop there, as Henry Laurens was also quite misogynistic and there are even quotes of him telling Patsy she needs to limit herself, or focus more on training for her domestic wife life when she marries. So, the Laurens girls faced a lot of sexism from their male family members.

In a letter form Laurens to Henry, Laurens talks of how he believes Martha (Or Patsy) should work on her womanly traits, he implies that Martha must work on herself to fit into society's mold of an “ideal” woman, or else she will end up having no value;

“My Sister Patty from her retired Disposition does not appear to have either great opportunity or Ambition to improve in the matters which you allude to; tho’ she possesses in an eminent degree those Qualities which will render her valuable in Society, and lead her to her Duty in all the relative Situations of Life, she is deficient in that Grace of Deportment with gives Splendour to every Action, and increases Respect for the Virtue which it accompanies, but this she will acquire by proper Attention, her walk her Tone of Voice needed Reformation, at my earnest Request she has taken pains and not unprofitably, with the latter, she has good Sentiments and couches them in well chosen words, but they frequently lose their Effect, by being conveyed in an undecided Tone.”

(source — John Laurens to Henry Laurens, [April 26, 1776])

Continuing on with Patsy, Laurens also thought women were just naturally fearful and pathetic in comparison to men. As he challenged his sister to ride faster on a horse carriage ride of theirs to prove if she was so “woman-ish” or not, to which she gladly proved him wrong;

“John Laurens, from whom she had been for some years separated. Being older, he had taken great delight in forwarding her education, and particularly, in forming her mind to be superior to the common accidents of life, and the groundless fears of some of her sex. To ascertain whether his labors had been successful or not, he bribed the postillion to drive very rapidly, and at the same time, without discovering his views, narrowly watch- ed her countenance, to observe whether there were any changes in it expressive of womanish fears, at the novel scene, so totally different from all her former travelling in the low, flat, stoneless country of Carolina. On the termination of the experiment, to his satisfaction, he announced to his unsuspecting sister his congratulations, that ‘he had found her the same Spartan girl he had left her.’”

(source — Memoirs of Eminently Pious Women of Britain and America, Volume 1, edited by David Francis Bacon)

But also, since growing up in such a environment, Polly - Laurens's youngest sister - was quite aware of gender equality from a very young age. There is a letter where Laurens mentions that Polly wanted the same freedom as her older brother, Harry, and to be able to wear breeches. Since she and Harry were coming of age, and would have started to be treated much differently and beginning to be prepped for their different lives. Polly; likely a house wife — and Harry; a successful man. But the attitude that Laurens treats this entire matter with is dismissive, and even laced in a tone of arrogant fond laughter. Laurens says Polly talked with “as much Gravity as Innocence,” meaning he viewed the ideology of equality between men and women as childhood innocence, like this whole endeavor was just some blissful nonsense from a child without any true understanding of how the world works. Truly, he was took this all as if it was not to be taken seriously;

“Sweet little Polly is the admiration of every body_ we both agree that my Aunt does not exercise Authority enough over her, but it can scarcely be wonder’d at, a Person with my Aunts Circumstances with respect to Polly, would rather wish the world to say she is too indulgent, than to severe; and a Desire to avoid one extreme, often leads to another which ought equally to be shun’d, but with all my Aunts Mildness, Polly thinks the Restraint incident to her Sex, very mortifying, and asked one day with as much Gravity as Innocence, if the would not let her wear Breeches & become a Boy, She envied Harry his freedom very much and would wish to be upon the same footing with him, when she was told that this Change would not be effectual, she proposed what she thought would infallibly answer the purpose, to be re-christen’d, and have a male Name.”

I'm not sure whether bringing up his misogyny is a fair point or not, because technically that was the view of the day, and so many American historical figures were all sexist assholes. So, I'll just go to some other points and if anyone wants to hear about Laurens's sexism ask that separately.

To start off with recklessness; everyone applauds Laurens for his rash behavior, and claims it to be an act of heroic bravery. But has anyone considered the amount of lives he put at stake and even had killed due to his temerity? In the consequence of his rebelling against orders and rushing straight ahead risked and lost several lives. Which I don't think he ever truly learned how his actions affected others, as it was a continuous pattern of his throughout the war.

Next is Laurens's messy relationship with slavery; we all know Laurens was an abolitionist, and was headstrong in abolishing slavery. But a peak into his personal life actually displays his hypocrisy.

Laurens never technically owned any slaves for himself, but he did have two slaves at his disposal during he war that were his father's, who sent them to him to act as valets. Only one has a confirmed name, which was Shrewsberry. But by many accounts, they were treated rather poorly by Laurens. As Laurens writes to his father saying that Shrewsberry can go without clothes for the winter;

“Berry received a Hunting shirt and a Check shirt, if there be any any difficulty in getting him Winter Cloths, I believe he can do without.”

(source — John Laurens to Henry Laurens, [December 15, 1777])

Which is definitely an eye-glaring note, because throughout Laurens's correspondence with his father, he mentions clothes repeatedly. Yet, he gets irritated when Shrewsberry gets his hat stolen and blames him for it, acting as if Shrewsberry wasn't properly taking care of his things;

“As we shall probably move to-morrow, I write to inform you that I must be obliged to use your horses and servant farther on there having been no possibility of supplying myself with these articles here. Shrewsberry says his hat was violently taken from him by some soldiers, as he was carrying his horses to water. If James will be so good as to send him his old laced hat by the bearer, I hope he will take better care of it.”

(source — John Laurens to Henry Laurens, [August 21, 1777])

Also, Thaddeus Kosciusko even writes saying that Laurens's slaves were naked at the time of Combahee;

“Kosciuszko was disgusted when he saw the rebel soldiers strip Laurens's dead body of valuables and divide the possessions among themselves. The Pole wrote to Greene saying that it was ‘mean, low thinking,’ to take Laurens's belongings, and that ‘the Devil himself would not take from him.’ Kosciuszko followed up with another letter to Greene suggesting that Laurens's clothes be given to his black aides because the ‘two negroes belonging to L.C. Laurence [...] are nacked they want shirts, jackets, Breeches and their skin can bear as well as ours good things.’"

(source — The Peasant Prince: And the Age of Revolution, by Alex Storozynski)

So, obviously Laurens was cutting his valets' resources or needs because he felt it wasn't truly needed — while happily supplying himself and other white soldiers their necessities. There is also this letter from Laurens to his father that just raises so many red flags to me;

“I would bring about a twofold good, first I would advance those who are unjustly deprived of the Rights of Mankind to a State which would be a proper Gradation between abject Slavery and perfect Liberty—and besides I would reinforce the Defenders of Liberty with a number of gallant Soldiers—Men who have the habit of Subordination almost indelibly impress’d on them, would have one very essential qualification of Soldiers—I am persuaded that if I could obtain authority for the purpose I would have a Corps of such men trained, uniformly clad, equip’d and ready in every respect to act at the opening of the next Campaign—”

(source — John Laurens to Henry Laurens, [January 14, 1778])

First of all, the “proper Gradation between abject Slavery and perfect Liberty,” implies that - even though Laurens did want to free the slaves - he did not think that black people should have the “perfect Liberty” that white people would have. Second, Laurens writes, “Men who have the habit of Subordination indelibly impress’d on them,” which is basically; “They're used to taking orders and listening, so they'll make great soldiers.” I understand times were tough in the Continental army, but Laurens taking advantage of the cruelty slaves endured because they've been forced into it is just fucked up.

“I confess indeed that, the minds of this unhappy species must be debased by a Servitude from which they can hope for no Relief but Death—and that every motive to action but Fear, must be nearly extinguished in them—”

(source — John Laurens to Henry Laurens, [February 2, 1778])

‘Species’ is a pretty racist term, but I'll excuse it because later in the letter Laurens uses the term race. Either way, Laurens claims that black people do not have the capabilities or brain comprehension as white people do, admittedly, he does fault slavery for this. Which is - in some sense - correct, as slaves weren't allowed education. But it still implies a sort of inferiority, which he displays again just a bit later;

“I have had the pleasure of conversing with you sometimes upon the means of restoring them to their rights—When can it be better done, than when their enfranchisement may be made conducive to the Public Good, and be so modified as not to overpower their weak minds—”

‘Weak minds’, huh?

Overall, Laurens was a firm believer in abolishment. But it is evident that the prejudice mindset of a wealthy, white, plantation owner still lingered in Laurens's behavior. Likely because he was still raised in that environment, and with folks around him like that. With this ideology instilled in his mind, it clearly still shined through. Not to mention, Laurens had this sort of “savior white complex”, where he believed he was going to be the hero that lead the poor, helpless slaves to their freedom as a reward. Which is where you see Laurens saw black people as mentally inferior just because they likely weren't as “sophisticated” as the white people of the day prided themselves as.

However, that's not the reason I reblogged this, I did it to show how according Hurrah for Hampton, Francis Henderson Jr did have a son, called Edward Henderson.

Little disclaimer: I don't know what kind of source had the author to make that declaration, I've tried searching the source but at present I'm still unsuccessful, so take it easy!