Patrick Henry was more than a well-spoken scofflaw. He spoke up when changes needed to be made. In 1763, while arguing the Parson's Cause (a price raise in tobacco due to the shortage in 1758) Henry was quoted saying that a king who would veto a good and necessary law decided on by a local voting body was not a king at all, but "a tyrant who forfeits the allegiance of his subjects (Colonial Williamsburg 1)." When arguing against the stamp act on May 30, 1765, he went as far as to call what the king was doing treason. It was actions of the king that motivated Henry, among other colonists along the coast, to turn against him. It was not a undying need to cause trouble.
During this stir, Patrick Henry still considered himself, first and foremost, a Virginian. His obvious rebellion against the king left him no longer an Englishmen, and it was in Virgina that he shared the closest connections with like-minded people. However, there were pressing problems that all colonies had, and in 1774 he represented Virginia in the first continental congress to discuss the Intolerable Acts. What came out this meeting are some of the most famous words spoken in American history: I am not a Virginian, but an American. "By 1772, he'd already realized that there was a unique, special, distinct American Identity, that we were somehow different all of a sudden from our English cousins overseas" (Shumon). Patrick Henry was the first to think of such a thing as an American, but he certainly wasn't the last.
In March of 1775, Henry encouraged his fellow Virginians to prepare to defend themselves for war. He said himself that "the war is inevitable--and let it come!" He said, "there is no retreat but submission in slavery", and he decided that he would rather make the sacrifice of war than know surely that Virginians and Americans alike were under the rule of an unjust king overseas. He organized the militia and obtained the gunpowder stores which stirring some trouble with the King-appointed governor of Virginia. His restitution of the gunpowder is considered by many to be the start if the American Revolution. Never was there a Virginia Revolution, but a revolt of Americans together for the first time as patriots fighting for their country. "This Democratic Republic of Virginia, and eventually America, had never been attempted before, and it worked. I think the forefather would be proud and amazed" (Shumon).
He closes his speech for the war saying, "I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death." In quoting Richard Shumon, it'd be more than fair to say that Patrick Henry "was the chief advocate if Independence". He wanted freedom, as a country, from oppressive England, and he was willing to fight for it using both weapons and words. However ambiguous the word, there's is no doubt that Patrick Henry showed patriotism when building the "America" lived in today, even if it took a whole new kind of patriotism to do so. He may have been born a Virginian under British rule, but he died an American.
Works Cited
"American Revolution." 9 May 2007
"Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death." LibertyOnline. 9 May 2007
"Patrick Henry." Colonial Williamsburg. 9 May 2007
Shumon, Richard. Interview with Lloyd Dobbins. Colonial Williamsburg. 9 May 2007
