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Give Me Liberty or Give me Death It would be Patrick Henry's defining speech. There would be no partisan rhetoric, no attacks on the character of his opponents, no condemnation of those who disagreed with him. Instead, he would take the floor of St. John's Church in Richmond that March day of 1775 and rising to address the now exiled House of Burgess, disbanded not that long before and forced into hiding by the colonial Governor, Lord Dunmore, he would, in a patient plea for action, lay out the road to revolution from grevious moves by the Imperial Government, to the petitions to King George the Third to the blight of their brethren in Massachusetts Colony. Interwoven would be the Bible, prophetic images and references taken from Shakespeare, given in the unique style that only, it would seem, Patrick Henry could speak in. In ten minutes, he lay to rest months of debate, the House rising to arms. Virginia would send troops a short time later. There is no original transcript of the speech given March 23rd, 1775 by the man who would become Governor of the State of Virginia, who would later speech passionately of the need for a Bill of Rights and would oppose the Constitution on the same grounds. The first actual written account of the text of the speech would appear two generations later in William Wirt's "Life and Character of Patrick Henry", published in 1817. The truth is that Henry's hypnotic speaking style would often seem to almost entrance his listeners, Thomas Jefferson, one of the men present at St. John's, once remarking he would always be engrossed and excited by a speech by his compatriot and yet that, if asked later to recount it, he would be unable to do so. Yet here... Here would be a battle cry of the Revolution and for a nation generations after he had faded from this earth... "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" Tags: Patrick Henry Give Me Liberty or Death American Revolution House of Burgess St. John's Church Richmond Virginia History