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Patrick Henry
1736–1799
Best remembered for the stirring cry “Give me liberty, or give me death!”, he was one of the American Revolution’s most powerful voices and a major force in Virginia politics. His speeches helped turn resistance to British rule into a cause that ordinary people could feel and remember.
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About the author
Born in Hanover County, Virginia, in 1736, Patrick Henry became one of the best-known orators of the Revolutionary era. Before rising to national prominence, he worked as a shopkeeper and planter, then studied law and quickly built a reputation as a persuasive courtroom speaker.
Henry emerged as a leading critic of British authority in the 1760s and 1770s. He served in Virginia’s House of Burgesses, argued strongly against the Stamp Act, and became famous for his dramatic speech to the Second Virginia Convention in 1775. During and after the Revolution, he also served as Virginia’s first post-colonial governor.
Although he supported independence, Henry later worried that the United States Constitution gave too much power to the federal government without enough protection for individual liberties. That concern made him an important Anti-Federalist voice, and his arguments helped shape the push for a Bill of Rights. He died at Red Hill in Virginia in 1799.