Patrick Henry

Patrick Henry was a Virginia lawyer, planter and orator whose fiery speeches helped ignite the American Revolution. A leader of the radical opposition to British rule, he served as Virginia’s first post-colonial governor and later opposed ratification of the U.S. Constitution as an Anti-Federalist. His reputation rests above all on his oratory — almost none of which survives in his own words, since he spoke from sparse notes and left no written texts of his great speeches.