Patrick Henry in the American Revolution
Patrick Henry is remembered for the words “Give me liberty or give me death!” His importance in the American Revolution also rests on his work as a lawyer, legislator, military organizer, and Virginia’s first governor after independence. His later opposition to the Constitution helped keep the protection of individual rights at the center of the national debate.
Henry’s family and early life
Henry was born on May 29, 1736, in Hanover County, Virginia, to John Henry and Sarah Winston Syme Henry. His father was a Scottish-born planter who had studied in Aberdeen; his mother came from an established Virginia family. Henry attended a local school and then continued his education with his father.
His early working life was uncertain. As a teenager, he worked for a merchant and then opened a store with his brother William. That business failed. These setbacks preceded the legal and political career for which he became known.
In 1754, Henry married Sarah Shelton. Her marriage portion included the roughly 300-acre Pine Slash farm, a house, and six enslaved people. The couple’s difficulties as farmers and shopkeepers are part of Henry’s early story. His ownership of enslaved people also belongs alongside his later arguments about liberty.
The farm did not provide a secure living, and a fire destroyed the house in 1757. Henry subsequently worked in the tavern operated by Sarah’s father and turned to studying law. He qualified as a lawyer in 1760, before the farm was sold in 1764.
Henry and Sarah had six children. Sarah experienced a serious mental illness and died in 1775. He married Dorothea Dandridge in 1777, and they had eleven children.
From the courtroom to revolutionary politics
Henry’s public career began well before he became governor. In the 1763 Parson’s Cause, he challenged the Crown’s interference with a Virginia law affecting clergy salaries. Elected to the House of Burgesses in 1765, he became a leading opponent of the Stamp Act. His reputation rested heavily on the force of his courtroom and legislative speeches.
In 1773, Henry joined other Virginia leaders on an intercolonial committee of correspondence. These committees helped colonies share news and coordinate resistance to British policies. Henry also represented Virginia at the First Continental Congress in 1774.
The liberty-or-death speech and military service
On March 23, 1775, Henry spoke at the Second Virginia Convention in Richmond’s St. John’s Church, urging military preparation. This was the setting of the famous liberty-or-death speech, not a session of the House of Burgesses. No verbatim contemporary transcript survives. William Wirt reconstructed the familiar text for his 1817 biography using later recollections, a distinction worth remembering when quoting it.
In April 1775, Lord Dunmore ordered gunpowder removed from Williamsburg’s magazine. Henry led Hanover volunteers in the resulting confrontation and obtained compensation in May. That Gunpowder Incident preceded his August appointment as colonel of the 1st Virginia Regiment and commander of Virginia’s forces.
Governor and critic of the Constitution
Henry became the first governor of the independent Commonwealth of Virginia in 1776. He served three one-year terms from 1776 to 1779 and two more from 1784 to 1786. He later argued against ratifying the proposed federal Constitution, fearing excessive central power and the absence of express safeguards for individual rights.
At Virginia’s ratifying convention in 1788, Henry was an influential Anti-Federalist voice. Virginia nevertheless ratified the Constitution while recommending amendments. James Madison, George Mason, other critics, and the states’ ratification debates all contributed to the movement for a federal bill of rights. Congress proposed twelve amendments in 1789; ten were ratified in 1791. Henry helped press the issue, but he was not solely responsible for the Bill of Rights. He died at Red Hill on June 6, 1799.
Learn More
Patrick Henry’s Life and Times — Red Hill
The Liberty-or-Death Speech and Its Reconstruction — Red Hill
Patrick Henry’s Letters and Speeches — Red Hill
Richard Henry Lee in the American Revolution
Who’s Who in the American Revolution — Free eBook
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