Patrick Henry was a Virginian who advocated colonial rebellion against
Great Britain. He had a successful law practice and served in public office as both a legislator and as governor of Virginia. Remembered for the
phrase “Give me liberty or give me death,” Henry had a talent for oratory that inspired the birth of a nation.
Early life
Henry was born in Studley, Virginia, in a western county of the colony
on May 29, 1736. He was the second son of Colonel John Henry and
Sarah Winston. John Henry was from Scotland and had an education
from Aberdeen University that served him in educating his own children.
Henry learned to read and write in school. From his father, he
learned some Latin and Greek as well as mathematics and history.
Growing up in rural Virginia, inland from the coastal tidewater region,
Henry spent much of his time hunting.
Henry’s family could not afford to send him to college. Many
middle-class children in Virginia were expected to learn a practical trade
instead. When Henry was fifteen, he began a yearlong apprenticeship as
a clerk in a country store. In 1752, John Henry bought goods so Patrick
and his older brother William could open their own store, but the business failed.
Marriage and law
Patrick Henry married sixteen-year-old Sarah Shelton in 1754. Together
they would have six children. Sarah’s father gave the Henrys a 300-acre
farm and six slaves. Henry tried tobacco farming for a couple years until
a fire destroyed their house. After that Henry opened another shop and,
when that failed, worked as a bartender in his father-in-law’s tavern in Hanover County. In 1760, Henry decided to study law to improve his earning power.
Within a year, he passed oral examinations in Williamsburg, the provincial capital, and received a license to practice law.
Henry handled a case in 1763 that helped make his career as a
lawyer and politician. The Privy Council in Great Britain, which reviewed colonial laws, had struck down a Virginia law regarding the
salaries of Anglican ministers. In a case involving the application of that
law, Henry argued that by striking down a duly passed law of the colony,
the crown in England had violated the rights of the colonists to govern
themselves concerning local matters. Great Britain’s refusal to approve
local laws later became the first in the list of complaints against King
George III (1738–1820) in the Declaration of Independence.
Politics
Henry became a legislator in the House of Burgesses, the colonial legislature in Virginia, in 1765. Great Britain had recently passed the
Stamp Act for the colonies. The Stamp Act imposed business taxes that
were normally regulated by local laws and was very unpopular among
colonial merchants.
In late May, just weeks after entering the House of Burgesses, Henry
introduced a series of resolutions against the Stamp Act. The resolutions
condemned taxation without representation. Henry said that people
have a natural right to govern themselves and a right to disobey laws imposed on them without their consent. Four of the seven resolves passed,
and Henry became known throughout the colonies an a spokesman for
American freedom.
As the American colonies began to organize against Great Britain,
Henry served on the First and Second Continental Congresses in 1774
and 1775. (See Continental Congress, First and Continental
Congress, Second.) Most of his public service, however, was at the state
level in Virginia. When Virginia wrote a constitution in 1776, Henry became the first governor of the state, a position he held until 1779 and
again from 1784 to 1786.
In 1787, the American states sent delegates to a federal convention
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its task was to rewrite the Articles of
Confederation, but instead it wrote a whole new document, the
Constitution of the United States of America. Henry declined to serve
at the convention because he disapproved of the plan to form a strong federal government. He did serve, however, in the Virginia convention
that had to decide whether to approve the Constitution. Henry was a
leading spokesman against approval because he thought the federal government would be too strong and that the Constitution did not contain enough protection for individual liberty. Henry worked to make James
Madison (1751–1836), who became known as the Father of the
Constitution, and others agree to add a Bill of Rights to the
Constitution in exchange for approval.
Later years
Public service had been financially costly to Henry, so he resumed his law
practice in 1788. By his death, he had amassed a small fortune in land
holdings. He was elected to a sixth term as governor of Virginia in 1796,
but he declined to serve. In 1799, former president George Washington
(1732–1799; served 1789–97) convinced Henry to serve again in the
state legislature. This time Henry agreed, but he died on June 6, 1799, before his term began.