On this day in history, March 23, 1775, U.S. Founding Father Patrick Henry gave one of American history's most iconic speeches, to the Virginia legislature.
Crying out "give me liberty of give me death," he called for the overthrow of British rule, and won the votes of two future U.S. Presidents, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, helping to set the stage for the American Revolution.
Ironically:
Mr. Henry, a Virginia plantation owner, relied upon slave labor throughout his life, owned 60-plus slaves at the time of his 1799 death, and never freed any of them. Despite his passionate cry of "give me liberty, or give me death," that liberty never applied to the people he enslaved.
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