Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736 – June 6, 1799) was an attorney, planter and politician who becomes known as an orator during the movement for independence in Virginia in the 1770s.
A Founding Father, he serves as the first and sixth post-colonial Governor of Virginia, from 1776 to 1779 and from 1784 to 1786.
Henry leads the opposition to the Stamp Act of 1765 and is remembered for his "Give me Liberty, or give me Death!"
speech.
Along with Samuel Adams and Thomas Paine, he is remembered as one of the most influential exponents of Republicanism, promoters of the American Revolution and independence, especially in his defense of historic rights.
With his first marriage, he becomes a landowner and slaveholder, and later owns thousands of acres of land in Virginia.
After the Revolution, Henry is a leader of the anti-federalists in Virginia.
He opposes the United States Constitution, fearing that it endangers the rights of the States as well as the freedoms of individuals; he helps gain adoption of the Bill of Rights.
By 1798 however, he supports President John Adams and the Federalists; he denounces passage of the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions as he fears the social unrest and widespread executions that had followed the increasing radicalism of the French Revolution.
With his cousin and her husband, by 1779 he owns a 10,000-acre (40 km2) plantation known as Leatherwood, where he owns 78 slaves and his cousin owns at least that many.
In 1794 he and his wife retire to Red Hill Plantation, which has 520-acres (2.1 km2) in Charlotte County.
