Henry Laurens spent Christmas morning 1763 in much the same way he spent every other day that monumental year, and in much the same way the western world does in the twenty-first century: conducting business.¹ Highlighting the patience required in a transatlantic eighteenth-century world, Henry explained that since he last wrote to the firm in June, he received their letter from May. He had hoped to receive a reply to his June letter before writing back, but he was now running out of patience.

He got to the point, telling them he agreed to their price for their bale strouds, a woolen fabric especially prized by Native Americans. The product, however, arrived damaged, making it unsaleable except by vendue (public auction).

Henry stated that such damage has been all too common of late and extended to “Negro cloth & duffils,” something the “packers must have been privy to.” Thus, there is a chink in the supply chain.

Maintaining the cordiality needed for eighteenth-century commerce, Henry closed: “I have no great offers to make … but, if ever you have occasion of my service [in South Carolina] you may be assured of my inclination to approve.”

1. Henry Laurens to Devonshire & Reeve, Charles Town, December 25, 1763, Papers of Henry Laurens, 4:107-108. ↩︎