The breadth and depth of Patrick Henry’s contributions to American independence became clear in a talk last Thursday at Mathews Memorial Library by historian and author Jon Kukla of Richmond.
Remembered 250 years later principally for his famous “give me liberty or give me death speech,” delivered in March of 1775 at St. John’s Church in Richmond, Henry was building on an activism that broke into public view with the unpopular Stamp Act in 1765. This measure, imposed by the British Parliament on its colonies, required that printed material use stamped paper; the stamps brought in revenue for England’s military.
The Stamp Act bypassed colonial legislatures and was considered “taxation without representation,” a source of discontent that became one of the causes of the Revolutionary War.
Patrick Henry, a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses who had just turned 29 years old, made his memorable maiden speech against the act on May 30, 1765:
“Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First hi...
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