The term “give me freedom or give me death!” He became usual in politics and life. It’s part of Americana and helps define his men.
Now, the quote is celebrating a large turning point because it signifies its 250. anniversary.
The term allegedly used first 250 years ago Sunday by lawyer and lawmaker Patrick Henry to convince Virginia Colonists to prepare for the war against all punishes Great Britain, just a few weeks before the American Revolution.
Tensions reached boiling, especially in MassachusettsWhere the British replaced elected officials, they took Boston and closed the harbor.
“The whole episode was to help our brothers in Massachusetts,” said the historian John Ragost, who wrote a book about Henry. “It’s about the community. It’s about a nation. It’s not about,” What do I go out personally? “
The printed version of Henry’s galvanization speech in a crowded church was about 1,200 words. And yet those seven words survived a century like a line from Shakespeare Play.
“It’s a very vagmentary phrase,” Patrick Henry Jolly said, the fifth great grandson of Henry. “It’s something that can be applied to many different circumstances. But I think it’s important that people understand the original context.”
Jolly was set up to Reinact Henry’s speech on Sunday in the same church, where he handed him over his ancestor. The presentation, which will be transferred online, is part of Virginia’s commemoration 250. anniversary of the birth of a nation.
Here is more information about Henry and his speech:
Who was Patrick Henry?
Born in Virginia’s influenced family in 1736. years, Henry became a successful lawyer in his 20s.
According to the library of the Congress, he once surprised the courtroom with the argument that “man is born with certain unusual rights,” the idea echoed in the declaration of independence.
Henry is 1765. won the seat in the Colonial Legislation of Virginia. He was an instrument in contrast to the Great British Law on the Stamp, which included a direct tax on the American colonies to collect money for Britain.
As the tensions increased, many Americans felt like the citizens of the second grade without representation in parliament, he said a degree. Until the time of Henry’s speech, many thought, “The king won’t listen to us. They attacked Boston. What should we do in Virginia about it?”
Did he really say that?
In his book from 2004. “Founding myths”, Historian Ray Raphael wrote “Henry said very unlikely”, give me freedom or give me freedom or give me death! ”
Henry did not write speech and the version we know today was published 42 years later in the biography of 1817. years. Biographer, Lawyer William Wirt, compiled Henry’s words from the decades of the old memory of people who were there.
The printed version, Raphael wrote, “reflects the agenda of the 19th nationalists. The centuries who were loved by a romanticized war.”
But other historians said there was enough evidence Henry uttered those words.
“We have more people, years later, saying,” I remember it as if it were yesterday, “he said, adding that Thomas Jefferson was one of them.
Henry recalled the letter to the letter that looked like a dagger and suffocating him in his hand as in his chest before he told his chest.
“It’s oral 18. centuries,” Savost said. “It’s very rude.”
Jon Kukla, another historian who wrote a book about Henry, stated other evidence. Men in Virginia’s Militias soon connected their heavy canvas canvas with “freedom or death”.
Popular 1712 plays “Cato” about the Roman senator also contains a line “, now is not the time to talk about Augh, but chains or conquest, freedom or death.”
“That would be part of the written culture of old age,” Kukla said.
What happened next?
The most prompt influence of Henry speech was a greater support for the independence and expansion of Virginia militias.
In months after that, Henry and others were also driven by fears that the British would release enslaved people, Raphael suggests in “establishing myths”.
Virginian Royal Governor, Lord Dunmore, offered the freedom of enslaved people who fought for the British.
But the degree said that it was not the primary motivation of Henry, which enslaved dozens of people.
“That moves a lot of people from the fence in a patriotic column, undoubtedly,” Ragost said. “But that’s not exactly what happens to Jeffersons, Emptiness, Henrys. They were already committed to the Patriot movement.”
After independence, Henry served five times as the Governor of Virginia. He also became known as an antidegelylist, the opposite ratification of the US Institution of the United States and a strong central government.
But Henry later spoke in support for the founding document in George Washington, he died in 2019. years Henry.
“He says,” Look, I voted against the Constitution, but we were people voting for it. And so we have to follow that, “Savost said.
Liberty Versus License
Jolly, Henry’s descendants, said most people react positively to the famous words of his ancestral and recognize their historical significance.
“And there are some people who react that it is a gathering for them to defend their rights – on both sides of the aisle,” Jolly said.
Still, Henry and his contemporaries were careful to distinguish freedom from a license, he said Kukla, historian.
“Freedom, as they understood, didn’t the freedom do anything that you are well pleased,” Kukla said.