1765
Williamsburg, Virginia
Patrick Henry (standing at right) before the House of Burgesses in Williamsburg, Virginia, May 30, 1765; engraving after a painting by Peter F. Rothermel, c. 1852.
1775
Richmond, Virginia
Patrick Henry (standing at left) delivering his famous “Give me liberty or give me death!” speech at the second Virginia Convention, Richmond, March 23, 1775
Patrick Henry was born on the family farm, Studley, in Hanover County in the Colony of Virginia, on May 29, 1736. His father was John Henry, an immigrant from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, who had attended King's College, University of Aberdeen, there before emigrating to Virginia in the 1720s. Settling in Hanover County in about 1732, John Henry married Sarah Winston Syme, a wealthy widow from a prominent local family of English ancestry.
Patrick Henry attended a local school until about the age of 10. There was then no academy in Hanover County, and he was tutored at home by his father. The young Henry engaged in the typical recreations of the times, such as music and dancing, and was particularly fond of hunting. Since the family's lands and slaves would for the most part pass to his older half-brother John Syme Jr., Henry needed to make his own way in the world.
At the age of 15, Patrick Henry became a clerk for a local merchant, and a year later opened a store with his older brother William. The store was not successful.
As a youth, Patrick Henry failed twice in seven years as a storekeeper and once as a farmer. He was a practice of law, and in this profession he soon displayed remarkable ability. Within a few years after his admission to the bar in 1760 he had a large and profitable clientele. Patrick Henry was especially successful in criminal cases, where he made good use of his quick wit, his knowledge of human nature, and his forensic gifts.
Two years later, at the capitol in Williamsburg, where Patrick Henry had just been seated as a member of the House of Burgesses (the lower house of the colonial legislature), he delivered a speech opposing the British Stamp Act. During the next decade he was an influential leader in the radical opposition to the British government. Patrick Henry was a member of the first Virginia Committee of Correspondence, which aided intercolonial cooperation, and a delegate to the Continental Congresses of 1774 and 1775. At the second Virginia Convention, on March 23, 1775, in St. John’s Church, Richmond, Patrick Henry delivered the speech that assured his fame as one of the great advocates of liberty.
Patrick Henry resigned on February 28, 1776. He served on the committee in the Virginia Convention of 1776 that drafted the first constitution for the state. He was elected governor the same year and was reelected in 1777 and 1778 for one-year terms, thereby serving continuously as long as the new constitution permitted. As wartime governor, he gave Gen. George Washington able support, and during his second term he authorized the expedition to invade the Illinois country under the leadership of George Rogers Clark.
After the death of his first wife, Patrick Henry married Dorothea Dandridge and retired to life on his estate in Henry county. He was recalled to public service as a leading member of the state legislature from 1780 to 1784 and again from 1787 to 1790. From 1784 to 1786 he served as governor. Patrick Henry declined to attend the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention of 1787 and in 1788 was the leading opponent of ratification of the U.S. Constitution at the Virginia Convention. This action, which has aroused much controversy ever since, resulted from his fear that the original document did not secure either the rights of the states or those of individuals, as well as from his suspicion that the North would abandon to Spain the vital right of navigation on the Mississippi River.
Patrick Henry was reconciled, however, to the new federal government, especially after the passage of the Bill of Rights, for which he was in great measure responsible. Because of family responsibilities and ill health, he declined a series of offers of high posts in the new federal government. In 1799, however, Patrick Henry consented to run again for the state legislature, where he wished to oppose the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions, which claimed that the states could determine the constitutionality of federal laws. During his successful electoral campaign, he made his last speech, a moving plea for American unity. He died at his home, Red Hill, before he was to have taken the seat.
The religious revival known as the Great Awakening reached Virginia when Henry was a child. His father was staunchly Anglican, but his mother often took him to hear Presbyterian preachers. Although Patrick Henry remained a lifelong Anglican communicant, ministers such as Samuel Davies taught him that it is not enough to save one's own soul, but one should help to save society. He also learned that oratory should reach the heart, not just persuade based on reason. His oratorical technique would follow that of these preachers, seeking to reach the people by speaking to them in their own language.
Religion would play a key part in Henry's life; his father and namesake uncle were both devout and were both major influences in his life. Nevertheless, he was uncomfortable with the role of the Anglican Church as the established religion in Virginia, and fought for religious liberty throughout his career.
Quotations:
"Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"
"Perfect freedom is as necessary to the health and vigor of commerce as it is to the health and vigor of citizenship."
"We are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of Nature has placed in our power... the battle, sir, is not to the strong alone it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave."
"The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them."
"Fear is the passion of slaves."
"I have now disposed of all my property to my family. There is one thing more I wish I could give them, and that is the Christian religion."
