Patrick Henry

 

               Patrick Henry was son to John and Sarah Winston Henry and was born on May 29, 1736 in Hanover County, Virginia. His father had made him get an education at a young age but at home not at school; however, he left home to study law. Henry became a layer because he wanted liberty and autonomy; he was dedicated to the cause of freeing America from the British control. He had married twice in his life to Sarah Shelton and Dorothea Dandridge; in 1760 he was officially a lawyer due to the fact that he took his attorney’s test in Williamsburg. He had a job in the Virginia House of Burgesses and the Continental Congress

                Henry attained a job in the Virginia House of Burgesses and the Continental Congress he was fighting for justice that he considered was appropriate for America.  In 1765 on May the 30^th Henry went to the House of Representatives to argue that the king was not being “good” ruler but a tyrant due to the Stamp Act that was taking advantage of the American people.  Henry thought that the king was unfit to rule and impose laws in the Americas in which he thought that the people should rule themselves. On March 23, 1775 he encouraged his peers to arm in self-defense, he was giving a speech in which ended in the famous words of “give me liberty or give me death”. After that speech was made it was one of the major causes of the order for Lord Dunmore.

The speech that Henry introduced on 1775 began the American Revolution in Virginia. In 1774 a year before the Revolution started he was the leader of the Virginia Militia. Henry was adored by many of the Virginians and was a prominent role in the May 6, 1776 which he became the first governor in the new constitution. President Washington appointed Henry as Secretary of State in 1795 but declined the offer. He ended with a five year term being governor of Virginia until he died in 1799.