Patrick Henry’s "Give Me Liberty. . . " Speech

It was on this date, March 23, in 1775, that Patrick Henry delivered the speech containing the words almost every American knows by heart: Give me liberty or give me death!

Henry was a well-respected lawyer from Hanover County in Virginia. He was in attendance at the Second Virginia Convention that had been convened to discuss the colony’s strategy in negotiating with the British Crown over the petition for redress of grievances the first Continental Congress had sent to Britain’s King George III.

It’s exciting and inspiring to read about the atmosphere that existed in the American Colonies as well as at the Virginia convention when Henry delivered his speech. There is a description on the History Channel’s web site, and I refer you there for details. Click here to read the story.

There are a few interesting points to be noted about the convention and the speech:

• The convention was held at Richmond’s St. John’s church with approximately 120 delegated in attendance.
• George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, along with five or six other Virginians who later signed the Declaration of Independence, were among the attendees.
• Henry spoke without notes, and no transcripts of his exact words are available today. The only known version of his remarks was reconstructed in the early 1800s by William Wirt, a biographer who corresponded with several men that attended the Convention. A copy of the speech is available to read by clicking here.

While the last seven words of the speech are those best known and most often quoted, I like to put them in the context of the entire last paragraph and more specifically in the last three sentences that begin "Is life so dear or peace so sweet. . .". These words give me pause to examine my own motivations and beliefs about the importance and value of the freedoms we enjoy in this country.

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