RSS
Home
Today in military history: Patrick Henry ("liberty or death") born
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Peter F. Rothermel's depiction of Henry's speech to the Virginia House of Burgesses, in which Henry famously declared, according to his 19th-century biographer, "Give me liberty or give death!"
On May 29, 1736, Patrick Henry, famous for the words, “Give me liberty or give me death!” was born.
Henry uttered the words that made him famous during a speech in Virginia’s House of Burgesses in 1775. The House was debating whether to break with Britain. “Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains of slavery?” Henry asked, before answering, “Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
Or, at least, that’s what Henry’s first biographer, writing nearly half a century after Henry delivered his speech, would have us believe Henry said. Later historians have speculated that Henry may actually have appealed to popular fear of slave revolts and Native American attacks to gin up support for his anti-British position.
During the Revolutionary War, Henry remained in Virginia, living at his home, Leatherwood Plantation (he was a slaveholder) and serving as commander of the 1st Virginia Regiment. But despite his support for independence, he was deeply skeptical of the state that took shape after America won the war, believing that it tended more toward monarchy than a republic. He refused to attend the Constitutional Convention and lobbied against Virginia’s ratification of the Constitution, though he supported the Bill of Rights as a necessary check on federal power.
Henry turned down Pres. George Washington’s offer of the post of Secretary of State, on the grounds that Washington’s Federalist Party was too monarchical, but no matter: He had already served in the Continental Congress and would serve five terms as governor of Virginia.
For more info: Patrick Henry (Colonial Williamsburg)
More About:
today in military history
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
- African-American Civil War Memorial and Museum
- National Museum of American Jewish Military History
- National Museum of the Marine Corps
- Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
- Smithsonian National Museum of American History
- U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
- U.S. Navy Museum
- Women in Military Service for America Memorial
- African-American Civil War Memorial
- Arlington National Cemetery
- Korean War Veterans Memorial
- Marine Corps War Memorial
- National World War II Memorial
- Tomb of the Unknowns
- U.S. Air Force Memorial
- U.S. Navy Memorial
- Vietnam Veterans Memorial
- Women in Military Service for America Memorial
- World War I Memorial
