"Patrick Henry: The Civic Faith of an Enlightened Patriot"

Patrick Henry and his generation never donned T-shirts bearing clever statements of opinion – although they did employ colorful cockades, ribbons, sashes and pennants to express their loyalties. But historian Jon Kukla says if he were to choose a modern-day T‑shirt for Patrick Henry it might have been the one that says: “Under-Estimate Me: That will be fun!” As a young attorney and politician Patrick Henry became accustomed to being under-estimated. But from the Parsons’ Cause and Stamp Act Rebellion through the War for Independence, the Constitution, and the presidencies of Washington and Adams, Henry was constantly near the center of the action, in contrast to late-comers such as Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, or Tom Paine. Perhaps because Henry never held national office, aside from serving in the First and Second Continental Congresses, many historians (and their readers) have apparently under-estimated his significance. In this presentation Jon Kukla shows you cannot understand the American Revolution without Virginia and you cannot understand Virginia without Patrick Henry; he also offers a few thoughts about how twenty-first-century Americans might still, as Henry rhetorically advised George III, “profit by his example.” One big question Kukla will address is that posed by George Mason in 1792, George Washington in his Farewell Address, and Henry in his 1799 note to posterity: Was the Revolution a good thing or not?

Tickets: $35 includes a wine and cheese reception before the presentation. Series ticket: $175.00

Part three of the 2025 Spring Speaker Series “A Revolution in Liberty: Lexington and Concord to the First Amendment”