This week we traveled to Scotchtown, the Hanover County Courthouse, and St. John's Church in Richmond, VA, to study a little more closely the life and times of Patrick Henry (1736-1799). First stop, Patrick Henry's home, Scotchtown. Patrick Henry lived at Scotchtown with his first wife Sarah from 1771-1778. She died there and is buried on the property and he went on to become the first governor of a free VA after the American Revolution, moving to the Governor's Palace in Williamsburg. While at Scotchtown, we got to see several pieces of 18th and 19th c. dress as well as a few pieces that can possibly be traced to the Henrys. But since there were so many family members (he had 17 kids and 65 grandkids), there is not much furniture original to the family available. After exploring the house from the basement to the attic, we continued on our trip to the Hanover Courthouse.
The Hanover Courthouse was built in 1735. Henry worked at a tavern near this courthouse and found that he really like law. He studied law and when he won the Parson's Cause case, he became locally famous for his eloquence. Once he argued against British "taxation without representation" with the VA Resolves in 1765, he became famous all along the eastern seaboard. Patrick Henry, while wanting to be accepted by the upper class people, was able to appeal to the common man and come to fame by an entirely different avenue than most. As Roeber talks about in his article "Authority, Law, and Custom," county courts were central to mid-18th c. life in VA and property and family were important indicators of status. So by coming to power through these all-important courts, Patrick Henry was able to appeal to not only the common people such as the many planters who sued/were sued for debts, but also to the more socially important justices.
From the Hanover Courthouse, we moved to St. John's Church in Richmond, VA, the location of Henry's famed "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" speech. In 1775, the House of Burgesses, trying to evade Lord Dunmore, met at St. John's as the Second VA Convention with such notable figures as Thomas Jefferson, Peyton Randolph, George Washington, and Patrick Henry, among others, in attendance. This meeting and Henry's speech are often mentioned as factors leading toward the beginning of the American Revolution.
In "Popular Uprisings and Civil Authority in 18th c. America," Maier talks about how uprisings in the 18th c. were often started by mobs to protect rights and uphold values. So in Maier's article, the American Revolution is represented not as a radical venture by unruly subjects to overthrow authority, but rather as a conservative way for the people to uphold their rights in what they felt was an unfair system.
Also interesting about St. John's is the number of notable figures in its graveyard. Such graves include those of Elizabeth Arnold Poe, Edgar Allan Poe's mother, and George Wythe, the first signer of the Declaration of Independence. Wythe is also known for being murdered by his grandnephew George Wythe Sweney who got away with the deed, a story chronicled in Longsworth's article "I am Murdered."