Laurens was the only president to be held as a prisoner of war by a foreign country. He was of the Huguenot extraction, meaning that his ancestors had to come to America from France after the cancellation of the Edict of Nates made the Reformed faith illegal. He was raised and educated for a life of mercantilism in his hometown of Charleston, he also was able to spend more then a year in continental travel. When he was in Europe he began to write revolutionary pamphlets, making him known as a patriot.

In 1776 he served as the vice-president of South Carolina. Then he was elected into the Continental Congress. He served until December 9, 1778 when he was appointed Ambassador of the Netherlands. He was then captured by an English warship during his Atlantic voyage and was taken to the Tower of London and stayed there until the end of the war. The American government regained his freedom after the Battle of Yorktown. Laurens continued to serve his nation as one of the three representatives selected to negotiate terms at the Paris Peace Conference..