So this isn't exactly Lams-related, I just want to rant about him.
Ok. I've seen a lot of "Henry was an abusive dad" tropes (and I must confess myself guilty of agreeing with this at some point), and I've seen a lot of people defending him and saying that he wasn't a horrible dad.
In my opinion, he lies somewhere in the middle.
No, he wasn't physically abusive, per se, but he wasn't exactly a picture-perfect father either.
The main thing is John's brother, James', death.
Now you may be asking "But what does Henry have to do with John's brother?"
Hush, child. I'm getting there.
On September 5, 1775, John was watching over James (affectionately called Jemmy), when he somehow managed to get up on the roof.
Jemmy, not John.
Jemmy then fell and suffered a fatal injury to his skull as a result.
It's likely John blamed himself for his brother's death.
Henry didn't help much with that guilt.
I don't have the exact letter pulled up right now, but Henry wrote to John, saying something along the lines of "I don't really blame you for James' death, but it wouldn't have happened if you were paying closer attention."
*inhale*
That's not what you say to someone who already feels guilty.
*muffled screaming into pillow*
*exhale*
ok I'm good now.
It's speculated that this is what caused John's depressive spiral. Not necessarily his father's words (although I'm sure they had a big role in it) but the feeling of fault weighing on his shoulders after Jemmy's fall.
Henry also...
• Threatened to disown Harry Laurens (another one of John's brothers) if he wasn't cremated. This was in his will. He's dead and was still manipulating his children-
• Threatened to stop loving (occasionally threatened to disown) John if he didn't live up to his expectations.
• Kinda-sorta forced John into studying law when he had been interested in medicine.
• Made John leave Geneva (and Francis) to go to London despite John's wish to stay.
• I know there's some other stuff but I wanna go read my book so ima wrap this up
I still want to shove my foot up his ass and kick him where the sun don't shine and you guys are free to join me.
we ride at dawn.
YOU ARE READING
An Unofficial Review of Lams by an Unofficial Historian
Non-FictionI thought this might be fun so... I'm going to go over the letters and other scenarios (I'll take requests if there's something you want me to go over) I'll try to be as unbiased as I can but no promises. As I said, I am no historian, so this is ma...
