Speech of Patrick Henry to the Virginia House of Burgesses (March 23,1775)

Abstract

Editor's Note: One cannot publish this speech without acknowledging that the speaker, who condemned the British Crown for reducing Britain's white colonists to metaphorical slavery, held human beings of color in literal slavery. They had even more reason to make such a speech against him than he did against the Crown. That said, the speech itself summons its audience not to flinch or hesitate in the face of tyranny but to resist with courage. It is a much-needed warning for our own time.

—Darius Sivin