Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death

Patrick Henry is famous for delivering a speech ending with the line, “Give me liberty or give me death!” He was speaking to the Virginia Convention as they debated whether to declare war against the British. Henry waxed eloquently about the indignities the British had forced upon the colonists. He asked the delegates, “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?” That he would prefer death to enslavement is quite hypocritical given he was one of Virginia’s largest enslavers of Black people. Liberty only mattered for white people. Like many of the other Founders, he enjoys a fine reputation while treating the Black people he enslaved with contempt. Freedom was just another word intended for whites only.

“They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. 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! I repeat it, sir, let it come.

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace — but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

Patrick Henry had some things to say about the practice of enslaving people. I give you his words first, written in a letter to John Alsop, a member of the Society of Friends (Quakers). Then please allow me to retort:

“HANOVER, Va., Jan. 13, 1773.

DEAR SIR: I take this opportunity to acknowledge the receipt of ANTHONY BENEZETS book against the Slave trade. I thank you for it. It is not a little surprising that Christianity, whose chief excellence consists in softening the human heart, in cherishing and improving its finer feelings, should encourage a practice so totally repugnant to the first impressions of right and wrong. What adds to the wonder is that this abominable practice has been introduced in the most enlightened ages. Times that seem to have pretensions to boast of high improvements in arts, sciences and refined morality, have brought into general use and guarded by many laws a species of violence and tyranny which our more rude and barbarous, but more honest ancestors detested.

Is it not amazing that at a time when the rights of humanity are defined and understood with precision, in a country, above all others, fond of liberty — that in such an age and such a country we find men professing a religion the most humane, mild, meek, gentle and generous, adopting a principle as repugnant to humanity as it is inconsistent with the Bible and destructive to liberty? Every thinking, honest man rejects it in speculation. How few, in practice, from conscientious motives!

The world, in general, has denied your people a share of its honors; but the wise will ascribe to you a just tribute of virtuous praise for the practice of a train of virtues, among which your disagreement to Slavery will be principally ranked. I cannot out wish well to a people whose system imitate the example of Him whose life was perfect; and, believe me, I shall honor the Quakers for their noble efforts to abolish Slavery. It is equally calculated to promote moral and political good.

Would any one believe that I am master of slaves by my own purchase? I am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living without them. I will not — I cannot justify it, however culpable my conduct. I will so far pay my devoir to Virtue, as to own the excellence and rectitude of her precepts, and to lament my want of conformity to them. I believe a time will come when an opportunity will be afforded to abolish this lamentable evil. Everything we cam do, is to improve it, if It happens in our day; if not, let us transmit to our descendants, together with our slaves, a pity for their unhappy lot, and an abhorrence of Slavery. If we cannot reduce this wished-for reformation to practice, let us treat the unhappy victims with lenity. It is the furthest advancement we can make toward justice. It is a debt we owe to the purity of our religion, to show that it is at variance with that law which warrants Slavery.

Here is an instance that silent meetings (the scoff of reverend doctors) have done that which learned and elaborate preaching cannot effect; so much preferable are the general dictates of conscience, and a steady attention to its feelings, above the teachings of those men who pretend to have found a better guide. I exhort you to persevere in so worthy a resolution, Some of your people disagree, or at least are lukewarm in the Abolition of Slavery. Many treat the resolution of your meeting with ridicule; and among those who throw ridicule and contempt on it are clergymen whose surest guard against both ridicule and contempt, is a certain act of Assembly

I know not where to stop. I could say many things on this subject, a serious review of which gives a gloomy perspective to future times. Excuse this scrawl, and believe me, with esteem, your humble servant, PATRICK HENRY, JR. JOHN ALOSTP Hudson, N.Y.”

The Interpretation:

Having read a book written by Anthony Benezet opposing enslavement, Patrick Henry claimed to be bewildered that Christianity supported enslavement despite the cruelty of the practice. He thought anyone with a brain rejects the notion of enslaving other human beings. Henry wondered that in modern times such as those, chattel slavery was introduced when their barbarous ancestors knew and did better. But how could he give up the many benefits he and his family received from using and abusing Black men, women, and children.

He questioned if anyone would believe a good man such as himself would have personally bought and enslaved other people? He couldn’t find a way to suffer the inconvenience of not having enslaved people around to do his bidding. He thought it might not be too hard to teach his kids how wrong enslavement was and hoped they would have more will than his weak ass to make things easier for the enslaved, maybe get rid of slavery entirely? Something he wasn’t willing to do.

Hypocrite

Patrick Henry is alleged to have been against enslavement but had no plan for it to end. Some of his fellow Founders, like John Jay, allowed the enslaved to earn their manumission. Henry did not. George Washington arranged to free some of those he enslaved after his death. He didn’t/couldn’t free Martha’s slaves which created the situation where those she enslaved needed her to die to be free. That had to be uncomfortable. Martha ended up releasing most of her enslaved people before one of them took it upon themself to gain their freedom by ending her life. Thomas Jefferson is supposed to have been against slavery, but he freed only two of the over 600 people he enslaved during his lifetime. A few were released upon his death, but not the woman who bore him six children that he started raping when she was fourteen. Henry had sixty-seven enslaved people when he died. He willed them to his wife and six sons, all his supposed belief in ending slavery was just talk.

Henry argued against the Constitution, convinced that it would lead to the end of the institution of slavery, which he is credited for opposing.

“But sure I am, that the dangers of this system are real, when those who have no similar interests with the people of this country, are to legislate for us — when our dearest interests are left in the power of those whose advantage it may be to infringe them. How will the quotas of troops be furnished? Hated as requisitions are, your Federal officers cannot collect troops like dollars, and carry them in their pockets. You must make those abominable requisitions for them, and the scale will be in proportion to the number of your blacks, as well as your whites, unless they violate the constitutional rule of apportionment. This is not calculated to rouse the fears of the people. It is founded in truth. How oppressive and dangerous must this be to the Southern States who alone have slaves? This will render their proportion infinitely greater than that of the Northern States. It has been openly avowed that this shall be the rule. . . .”

Patrick Henry fought for the Bill of Rights to be added to the Constitution, especially the 2nd Amendment. He feared that a strong federal government would keep the states from being able to subdue slave rebellions and maintain slave patrols.

“By this sir, you see that their control over our best defence is unlimited.”

Despite current attempts to cast gun ownership as an individual right, it was all about sustaining the slave patrols essential to keeping order in the South. Patrick Henry was at the forefront of those arguments, knowing that as Governor of Virginia, the ratification of the Constitution would fail without the concessions he demanded.

Patrick Henry is mainly presented as an American hero. The truth is that his legacy of supporting enslavement should forever stain him. He shouldn’t get credit for wishing to see its end. The next time you hear him quoted about desiring death if he couldn’t have liberty. Remember, he didn’t mean it for all Americans. He did all he could to preserve the institution because, for him, it was convenient.

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This post was previously published on Black History Month 365.

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