You once mentioned Laurens' sexism, so was he like especially sexist or smt, or just like every second man back then?
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.”
(source — John Laurens to Henry Laurens, [April, 1776])
