In celebration of the upcoming 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we’re focusing on key events in the history of our nation’s independence. This edition provides deeper insight into Patrick Henry and his famous proclamation: “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death.” Today’s post comes from Tracy Baker, an intern in the National Archives Office of the Executive Secretariat.
Following the Seven Years’ War (1756–63), the British Crown needed to raise money to account for the massive accumulated debt. The Crown decided that increasing taxes on the North American colonies would serve as a sufficient solution. Specifically, Parliament enacted various taxation acts, including the Sugar Act (1764) and the Stamp Act (1765). The colonists, many of whom fought alongside the British military just a few years prior, were outraged by the onset of taxation without representation, deeming it a violation of British constitutional law.
As a newly selected member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, the first democratically elected legislative body in the British American colonies, Patrick Henry gained popularity as an outspoken opponent of Parliamentary taxation. In May of 1765, Henry introduced the Stamp Act Resolves, protesting the Stamp Act and asserting colonial rights. In a speech delivered to the House of Burgesses, Henry warned that King George III risked the fate of the backstabbed Julius Caesar if he continued to disregard American liberty.
Tensions between the Crown and the colonists continued to escalate and culminated in the Boston Tea Party. Following the rebellion in Massachusetts Bay, the British Parliament passed the Intolerable Acts (Coercive Acts) in 1774, aimed at punishing the colony for their blatant insubordination. In response to the Intolerable Acts, the Virginia House of Burgesses called for a day in June to be set aside to mourn the “destruction [of] Civil Rights.”
As a result of the “Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer,” the Virginia colony’s royal governor, Lord Dunmore, dissolved the House of Burgesses. Feeling as though their personal liberties were under attack, colonists throughout America called for a boycott of British goods.
All of the colonies, except for Georgia, sent delegates to set up the terms and means for the enforcement of the boycotts, in what we now know as the First Continental Congress. Patrick Henry, among the seven representatives sent from Virginia to attend the Continental Congress, proclaimed, “The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders, are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an American.”
When the Congress adjourned, Henry and the other delegates returned to their respective colonies, with plans to reconvene the following year if their grievances were not addressed satisfactorily. Back home in Virginia, Henry began working to organize a volunteer militia company for Hanover County and dealt with the tragic death of his first wife, Sarah Henry.
In March 1775, Henry resumed an active leadership role in the Revolution, serving at the Second Virginia Convention, which had been set up following the British termination of the House of Burgesses. On March 23, 1775, the fourth day of the Convention in the Henrico Parish Church (St. John’s Church), Patrick Henry introduced three resolutions. The resolutions called for the preparation of a “well-regulated militia,” condemned the royal governor for failing to call the House of Burgesses into session, and called for the Virginia “colony to be immediately put into a posture of defense.”
During the succeeding debate over the resolutions, concerns arose regarding whether the move would invite conflict. The emboldened Patrick Henry rose from his seat and delivered his most famous speech in support of his resolutions. Henry warned delegates not to let false hope cloud their judgment, stating there “was no way of judging the future but by the past,” and urged the delegates to understand that “the war [had] actually begun,” thus necessitating the need for a posture of defense.
The transcription of Henry’s speech is accredited to William Wirt, former United States Attorney General and American author. In the 1817 publication Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry, Wirt reconstructs the speech given by Henry to motivate his fellow Virginians toward militia preparations for the looming war. In the speech, Wirt describes a dramatic ending to Patrick Henry’s speech in which, with “both arms extended aloft,” his “brows knit,” and “every feature marked with the resolute purpose of his soul, [Henry’s] voice swelled to its boldest note of exclamation,” and proclaimed “give me liberty, or give me death!”
The intense description of Patrick Henry’s speech in Wirt’s publication has led some historians to question the accuracy of the transcription. Wirt’s quest to depict Henry’s life 19 years after the death of the revolutionist was difficult. Wirt used a variety of media to gain insight into what happened in the Henrico Parish Church, including Henry’s personal collection and interviews with those who had heard Henry deliver his speech. Despite this, Wirt admitted to embellishing the speech as there was no extant written copy.
National Archives Identifier 535746
Although the famous Liberty or Death speech accredited to Patrick Henry may not be a verbatim transcript, it is well known that the delivery of the speech was powerful enough to carry Henry’s proposed resolutions to pass by a majority of 65 to 60.
As a result, a committee was established to organize and present militia plans to the other delegates. Two days later, the Second Virginia Convention unanimously passed the committee’s model for the militia, and less than a month after the convention’s March 27 conclusion, the first shots of the American Revolution were fired at Lexington and Concord on April 19.
Want to know more? Come visit the Road to Revolution exhibit in the National Archives Building. The series features National Archives records that tell the story from colonial resistance to American independence and the diverse experiences of the nation’s founding generation.