Patrick Henry was born on May 29th, 1736, in Hanover County, Virginia. As a boy, Patrick Henry was very bright. His parents were John and Sara Winston Henry. Patrick grew up on the Red Hill Plantation in Virginia. At age ten his parents started to notice that he would be a bright child and not a regular farm boy. Because his parents began to notice this, his father, John Winston Henry, started to tutor him. While his father was tutoring him, Patrick Henry learned how to read. One interesting thing is that his father taught him Latin. Later, Patrick studied law on his own.

Patrick Henry got married at the age of eighteen to Sarah Shelton. When he became twenty-one, his father set up a business for him, but that soon went into bankruptcy. Patrick Henry then studied for 6 weeks to become a lawyer. He passed the bar test and became a lawyer. In 1760, he set up private practice in the Hanover Courthouse in Virginia for his job.

In 1764, Patrick Henry moved to Louisa County, Virginia. On May 30th, 1765, he went to protest against the Stamp Act at the Virginia House of Burgesses. This is where he first proposed his Virginia Stamp Act Resolutions. Five of the resolutions were passed. His Stamp Act Resolutions were some of the very first arguments in the American Revolution. He became one of the first radicals in the American Revolution.

In 1774, Patrick Henry represented Virginia in the First Continental Congress. The next year in March, 1775, he was strongly urging his fellow Virginians to arm themselves in self-defense against the British troops. During this time he said, "the distincitions between Virginia, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders are no more. I AM NOT A VIRGINIAN, BUT AN AMERICAN! When he returned from the First Continental Congress, he led the militia to defend Virginia's gunpowder store from the British. Once Governor Lord Dunmore had taken gunpowder, and they made the Governor pay for the powder just like everyone else. One of the reasons that he was able to reason with the British Governor was because he was not just a patriot and a lawyer, but also an orator who is a person who speaks well in public.

Image courtesy of ToKind from LeftJustified.

In 1776, Patrick Henry was elected the Governor of Virginia. After his first term, he served for three more terms after that. He was also elected again in 1784. After the signing of the Constitution, he worked to have the first ten amendments added to the Constitution. In 1795, he was appointed Secretary of the State by President George Washington, but he had to decline the position. Then four years later he was appointed the official Envoy to France by President Samuel Adams, but unfortunately, he also had to decline this job due to health conditions.

Patrick Henry died at the age of 62 on June 6th, 1799, on the Red Hill Plantation in Virginia. He lived a long a honorable life. He will live in our minds forever.