Patrick Henry's defining moment, and a defining moment in Richmond’s rich history, came during the Second Virginia Convention on March 23, 1775, when he delivered his now famous “Give me Liberty or give me death!” speech at St. John’s Church. 

Many future patriots were in the audience, including Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. The address helped drive prominent Virginians to prepare for war, which would lead to independence from Britain and the establishment of American democracy. 

On the historic day, 250 years ago this Sunday, delegates selected a presiding officer and elected delegates to the Continental Congress. Patrick Henry, a delegate from Hanover County, offered amendments to raise a militia independent of royal authority with the understanding that war with the British Empire was inevitable, and that the tyranny of that empire needed to be overthrown. It was the fiery delivery of his words on this important day that lit the fuse for war. In other words, his words mattered.

What exactly were these words that were so influential as to effect change? Because the speech was extemporaneous and not written down, it has become almost mythical in its content. In fact, it took over 40 years after Patrick Henry had delivered the speech (and 18 years after he died) that a reconstruction of the speech was published in William Wirt’s Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry. 

Wirt corresponded with those who had heard the speech in their youth, as well as others who were acquainted with people who were there at the time.  All of the words recounted that day depended upon memory, which of course is often fallible. 

Regardless of its accuracy, however, all of those witnesses to the speech affirmed that it produced a profound effect upon the audience that day. Only one surviving witness, St. George Tucker, attempted a two-paragraph reconstruction of the speech in a letter to Wirt, with Tucker conceding that, forty years after the speech, it was futile to remember the speech with any accuracy (and that the speech was far longer than what he remembered), including its last famous line, “Give me liberty or give me death!” (and even that line is debatable).

As Michael L. Dickinson, associate professor of history at VCU makes clear, “Regardless of its accuracy, the published version of Patrick Henry's speech has become deeply ingrained in public consciousness and the narrative of America's founding,” adding, “in terms of its significance, it does communicate the ethos of Revolutionary fervor.”  

Perhaps most importantly, Dickinson said, “there is also much to gain by understanding how Revolutionary language was used by people of African descent in the same period to reveal the hypocrisy of slavery in a nation founded upon principles of liberty.”

Dr. Raymond Hylton, professor of history at Virginia Union University, said, “I was most struck by its vehemence and defiance, and the sheer energy inherent in Henry’s words.” 

Even though Henry’s words were uttered less than a month before the fighting actually broke out at Lexington and Concord, some 550 miles away, Henry foresaw clearly where it would soon lead. As Hylton said, “Whether Virginia was joining in and what the eventual outcome would be could not be envisioned, and therefore this fiery address was an extremely daring and potentially dangerous act.” 

As a professor of English teaching Rhetorical Criticism, I see that energy, even in the re-imagined speech that day, and that this vital energy, infused into words, was enough to spark action. 

This is apparent in the text of the speech given its number of exclamation points and rhetorical question marks, which emphasize Henry’s raised voice as he stood at the pulpit in St. John’s Church. 

These include lines such as “There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable — and let it come!” And “what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on.” 

These are the words, however accurate the recollection of them is, that lit the fire of revolution against tyranny 250 years ago and words that still resonate today. 

“For today, its importance serves as a reminder that liberty and freedom are not always guaranteed, and effort and courage are often necessary to secure them,” Hylton said.

In history and literature classes across our country, Henry’s speech is still essential to teach, perhaps even more so in 2025, for it demonstrates how effective the spoken (or published) word can be in motivating others to act, and that liberty is a vital, if not the most important, component of a functioning democracy. As Henry makes clear in his speech, “The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty…are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us.”