Summer 2012 — Published By the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation — Brookneal, VA 24528

News FromRed Hill

Annual Independence Day Celebration

Red Hill Serves RecordNumber of Visitors in 2011

Each Independence Day, Red Hill welcomes more guests than on any other day of the year—and for good reason. The annual Independence Day Celebration—which has taken place for over three decades—is truly Red Hill’s event of the year, with more than . . . (continued on page 2)

In This Issue...Collection Feature Page 3

New “Save the Grave”Campaign To Begin Page 5

Book Excerpt From New Henry Biography Page 6

Red Hill’s HistoricBuildings Get New Paint Page 10

What Would Henry Say? Page 4

The year 2011 marked Red Hill’s highest number of visitors in history. In fact, every month broke records, and museum shop sales were also the highest ever. In all, over 9,000 visitors journeyed to Red Hill — an increase of more than 12% from 2010, and visitors came from 46 states and 20 countries.

Several reasons for the increase in visitation are apparent. The first is that the political environment in the country has drawn more people than ever before to connect with their nation’s history. People come to Red

Hill to revisit the history of the founding fathers, among whom Patrick Henry figures prominently. By coming to Red Hill, visitors are able to experience how Patrick Hen-ry lived, what he stood for, and the cultural background against which America began its history.

Another great contributor to the increased number of guests was an uptick in visita-tion from students on school field trips. Homeschool days as well as living history dem-onstrations for public school visitors constituted a sig-nificant

Published By the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation — Brookneal, VA

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2,500 visitors coming to Brookneal from as far as hundreds of miles around to enjoy living history demonstrations, great food, and the most significant fireworks display in the three-county region.

Red Hill’s living history is alive and well during the nation’s birth-day, with interactive displays show-casing the artisan crafts of the Rev-olutionary era. Guests can make a nail at the blacksmith shop, throw a bowl at the pottery wheel, and try their hand at textile-making in

the slave cabin. These great activities are normally reserved for students visiting Red Hill on field trips, but the Independence Day Celebration opens up these unique opportunities to the general public. Children can also par-ticipate in eighteenth-century games led by members of the Patrick Henry Auxiliary.

Local artisans showcase their wares on the lawn, including pot-tery, paintings, and other handcrafted goods. Food vendors such as the Li-ons Club and the Masons sell food for

the benefit of various charitable causes, to the delight of hun-gry visitors who can partake in the classic Fourth of July dishes. Guests can also visit all of Red Hill’s historic buildings, from Patrick Henry’s law office and house to the Red Hill Museum.

Amid all the fun

and excitement, the annual celebra-tion also brings an inescapable sense of serenity, nostalgia, and gratitude. After all, Independence Day celebrates the birth of our na-tion, and the great liberties we have as a result. What better place to celebrate the country’s anniversary than at the home of Patrick Henry?

One can hardly ignore the historical significance of the sur-roundings as Patrick Henry Jolly, Patrick Henry’s fifth (and sixth!) great-grandson, delivers the Declaration of Independence and Patrick Henry’s famous “Give me liberty or give me death” speech. The latter speech made it clear to

Independence Day Celebration at Red Hill (Cont.)

Red Hill Breaks All Visitation Records (Cont.)

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...an inescapable sense of serenity, nostalgia, and gratitude.

portion of Red Hill’s visitors in 2011.The creation of fun and exciting

new events at Red Hill also caused visitation to increase. The Easter Egg Hunt was brought back after a 20-year hiatus to the great pleasure of guests. New events such as Kite Day and the Bluegrass, Barbeque and

Brew Festival made their debut in 2011, both of which were hugely suc-cessful additions to Red Hill’s event lineup. The advent of Red Hill Wine and associated wine-tasting events also brought new visitors.

Also significant in Red Hill’s increased visitation are social media

and word of mouth. More people than ever before are finding out about Red Hill online, and social media such as Facebook, Twit-ter, and LinkedIn have allowed Red Hill to engage its guests more consistently than ever before. As a result, people are aware of what

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This historic land grant was signed by Patrick Henry during his fourth term as Virginia’s governor. The deed grants 32 acres of land in Amelia County to Wil-liam Jennings. It was officially donated to Red Hill in May 2009 by Colin Hudson of North Carolina, who first brought it to Red Hill because he wanted to share the deed with others who could appreciate it, and to verify its authenticity. Mr. Hudson soon decided to donate the document to enable more people to enjoy it and to ensure the deed’s conservation, and Red Hill graciously accepted. Hudson had inherited the deed from his mother, who was given it by a friend. Much deteriorated, Red Hill arranged for professional con¬servation upon its induction into the Red Hill Museum Collection and in September 2009, the deed was ready for exhibition. The deed will be displayed during May, June, and July, so be sure to come see it before it goes back into safe storage!

Due to the deed’s age and fragility, it cannot be exposed to natural light for long periods of time, so it doesn’t get shown very often. But it will be on display at Red Hill in May, June, and July!

From the Red Hill CollectionAmelia County Land Deed,Signed by Patrick Henry

is going on at Red Hill, and are getting more involved in events as a result of the readily available information.

The record-breaking visitation experienced in 2011 continues into 2012—last month was the best April ever recorded at Red Hill with 1,024 visitors!

Signed June 1, 1785Land Grant, Parchment, 19” x 15”

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Where U.S. Visitors Came From In 2011

...They see here...a land on which Providence hath emptied the horn of abundance...

Independence Day (Cont.)the representatives of the United States that a war with England was coming. Nobody had previously put this sentiment into words as passionately as Henry did. Henry’s passionate exhortation of his fellow Americans throughout the Revolu-tionary era led to his great reputa-tion as a patriot and according to

On June 5, 1788 during the Rati-fying Convention Debate in Rich-mond, Virginia, Patrick Henry said:

Here is a resolution as radical as that which separated us from Great Britain. It is radical in this transition; our rights and privileges are endan-gered, and the sovereignty of the states will be relinquished…The rights of conscience, trial by jury, liberty of the press, all your immunities and fran-chises, all pretensions to human rights and privileges, are rendered insecure, if not lost, by this change, so loudly talked of by some, and inconsiderately by others… It is said eight states have adopted this plan. I declare that if twelve states and a half had adopted it, I would, with manly firmness, and

in spite of an erring world, reject it. You are not to inquire how your trade may be increased, nor how you are to become a great and powerful people, but how your liberties can be secured; for liberty ought to be the direct end of your government…Is it necessary for your liberty that you should abandon those great rights by the adop-tion of this system? Is the relinquishment of the trial by jury and the liberty of the press necessary for your liberty? Will the abandonment of your most sacred rights tend to the security of your liberty? Liberty, the greatest of all earthly blessing—give us that precious jewel, and you may take every thing else! [S]uspicion is a virtue as long as its object is the preservation of the public good, and as long as it stays within proper bounds: should it fall on me, I am contented: conscious rectitude is a power-

ful consolation. I trust there are many who think my professions for the pub-lic good to be real. Let your suspicion look to both sides. There are many on the other side, who possibly may have been persuaded to the necessity of these measures, which I conceive to be dangerous to your liberty. Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel.

Henry strongly opposed the adoption of the new constitution as drafted. The Bill of Rights was adopted partly to quiet Henry’s loud opposition to the centralization of power in a

Thomas Jefferson, the man who “gave the first impulse to the ball of revolution.”

This sense of his-tory makes Indepen-dence Day at Red Hill an especially powerful place to experience this

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What WouldHenry Say?

400 words

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“What Would Henry Say?” will present how Patrick Henry actually addressed a question of his day,so that the reader can consider how Henry’s principles might inform today’s debates.

a b o u t t h e p r i o r i t y o f l i b e r t y

(continued on page 10)

day of remembering our nation’s founding. Grandparents get an op-portunity to communicate to their grandchildren the importance of liberty, and the great gift of liv-ing in the United States where the people rule themselves.

As the evening ends with a spectacular twenty-five minute fire-works display, attendees are often moved at the emotional experi-ence of appreciating the value of

America at Patrick Henry’s Red Hill. It is this powerful experience of his-tory that brings thousands of visitors every year, including hundreds from states away.

This year’s Independence Day Celebration will begin at 3pm, and will continue through the evening with living history interpretations and other events until the fireworks show, which takes place at 9pm. The cost to attend the celebration is just

$10 per car of five persons, plus $2 for each additional individual. Don’t miss this fun and meaningful opportunity to enjoy and reflect on the freedom of living in the United States of America.

“Save The Grave” Campaign Aims to Maintain Henry And Family Graves

May 29th will mark 276 years since Patrick Henry’s birth, and also the beginning of Red Hill’s “Save The Grave” campaign, which will aim to raise funds to preserve the graves in the Henry family graveyard at Red Hill, including Patrick Henry’s.

A professional conservator was recently invited to the grounds to inspect the graves to assess their condition. It was discovered that of the seven marked graves in the graveyard, six of them are in need of professional conservation due to carbon accumulation on their horizontal surfaces.

The gravestones are as old as 156 years and were cleaned as recently as 15 years ago, but they need maintenance in order to escape deterioration over the course of decades. Gravestones were not placed on Patrick Henry and

Dorthea’s graves until the death of his grand-daughter Helen Laura Henry Carter on July 4, 1856. Dorothea Henry’s grave has the greatest need for conservation, with the grave’s raised lettering, which has partially eroded due to weather effects.

The conservator who will conduct the cleaning process to conserve the graves will use an assortment of techniques including water, steam, and gentle brush cleaning, which serve the

purpose of cleaning the graves without damaging them, but also take a great deal of time.

The “Save The Grave” campaign will aim to raise the $10,000 necessary to fund the extensive and delicate process used to clean the graves in the Henry family graveyard, appealing to those who understand the significance and importance of saving monuments that mark the graves of important historical figures.

Patrick Henry’s grave in the Henry Family Graveyard.

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Patrick Henry, OratorEssay by James M. Elson

Former Executive Vice President of the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation

Patrick Henry, the acknowledged “Voice of the American Revolution,”

was arguably the most influential speaker in American History. “The greatest orator who ever lived, a Shakespeare and a Garrick combined,” proclaimed John Randolph of Roanoke, an admirer of Henry’s politics and a spellbinder himself.

Thomas Jefferson, in his later years neither an admirer of Patrick Henry nor his politics, nevertheless echoed Randolph in describing him as “the greatest orator that ever lived.” Worried about Henry’s possible opposition in a political matter, George Washington wrote to a confidant, “Patrick Henry has only to say ‘let this be law’ and it is law.”

Who was this man whose ability to sway thousands long before the dawn of mass media, prompted Jefferson to describe him as “certainly the man who gave the first impulse to the ball of revolution,” and whose powers of communication could cause The Father of His Country not a little anxiety? Exactly how did he do what he did?

The truth is no one knows for sure.

Of all the Founding Fathers, Patrick Henry is the most difficult to pin down. Certainly he left a very sparse paper trail. George Washington’s writings fill about forty volumes, Thomas Jefferson’s almost sixty. In comparison those

of Patrick Henry scarcely fill one.But Henry’s most important

words were spoken, not written. He lived, of course, before the days of television, motion pictures, or still photography. Even the portraits we possess of Patrick Henry differ so widely as to make us wonder what he really looked like. And, of course, there are no recordings of his voice. As a matter of fact, there exist no accurate transcripts of most of his famous orations. William Wirt, Henry’s first biographer, had to resort to reconstructing them based on the recollections of aging witnesses. It is Wirt’s version of the “Liberty or Death” speech which school children committed to memory in those days now past when memorization was thought to play an important part in training the mind.

Thus a complete knowledge of what Patrick Henry said or how he said it is today beyond anyone’s reach, but it is possible to catch fascinating and tantalizing glimpses of the orator in action. The most obvious approach to understanding how this “Son of Thunder” transfixed his listeners is to go to the reminiscences of those who knew him and heard him speak.

Judge Spencer Roane first encountered Patrick Henry in 1783 and later married one of his daughters. Judge Roane’s memoirs of his father-in-law are, not surprisingly, sympathetic, but nevertheless discerning.

“He was not a handsome man but his countenance was agreeable, and full of intelligence and interest,”

recalled the judge. “He had a fine blue eye, and an excellent set of teeth, which, with the aid of a mouth sufficiently wide, enabled him to articulate very distinctly. His voice was strong, harmonious, and clear, and he could modulate it at pleasure.”

Elsewhere Judge Roane states in his memorandum: “It is to be observed that although his language was plain and free from unusual or high-flown words, his ideas were remarkably bold, strong, and striking. By the joint effect of these two faculties, I mean the power of his tone or voice and the grandness of his conceptions, he had a wonderful effect upon the feelings of his audience.”

Judge Roane relates this anecdote: “It is among the first things I can remember, that my father paid the expenses of a Scotch tutor residing in his family, named. Bradfute, a man of learning, to go with him to Williamsburg to hear Patrick Henry speak; and that he laughed at Bradfute, on his return, for having been so much enchanted with his eloquence as to have unconsciously spurted tobacco juice from the gallery on the heads of the members, and to have nearly fallen from the gallery into the House.”

Perhaps the most famous instance of the effect on an individual of Patrick Henry’s speaking is the story of Edward Carrington, who listened to the orator’s 1775 “Liberty or Death”

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speech while standing outside a window of Richmond’s St. John’s Church. “Let me be buried on this spot!” he vowed, transported by the peroration. Thirty-five years later, in 1810, he was.

“(His voice) was clear, distinct, and capable of that emphasis which I incline to believe constituted one of the greatest charms in Mr. Henry’s manner,” recalled Judge St. George Tucker, who first heard the orator in 1772. Much of Judge Tucker’s testimony correlates with that of Judge Roane: “He was emphatic, without vehemence or declamation; animated but never boisterous; nervous without recourse to intemperate language; and clear, though not always methodical.”

It appears from these contemporary accounts and others that Henry did not overwhelm his audiences with exaggeration or sheer volume of sound. Young Thomas Jefferson, then a student at William and Mary College in Williamsburg, was standing in the back of the chamber when Henry made his historic Stamp Act speech before the Virginia House of Burgesses on May 29, l 765. “Torrents of sublime eloquence” was his later description of Henry’s ultimately successful call for repeal of this taxation without representation. Yet as emotional an experience as it was for the future author of the Declaration of Independence, Henry’s oration had a classical quality about it: “To me it seemed he spoke as Homer wrote.”

After Henry’s death, stories of his oratory became increasingly overblown. Here is a nineteenth-century, second-hand version of the “Liberty or Death” speech that caricatures contemporary accounts of Henry’s speaking

style:“Henry rose with an unearthly

fire burning in his eye. He commenced somewhat calmly, but the smothered excitement began more and more to play upon his features and thrill in the tones of his voice. The tendons of his neck stood out white and rigid like whipchords. His voice rose louder and louder, until the walls of the building, and all within them, seemed to shake and rock in its tremendous vibrations. Finally, his pale face and glaring eye became terrible to look upon. Men leaned forward in their seats, with their heads strained forward, their faces pale, and their eyes glaring like the speaker’s. His last exclamation, ‘Give me liberty, or give me death!’ was like the shout of the leader which turns back the route of battle. The old man from whom this tradition was derived added that, ‘when the orator sat down, he himself felt sick with excitement. Every eye yet gazed on Henry. It seemed as if a word from him would have led to any wild explosion of violence. Men looked beside themselves’.”

The foregoing is an undeniably vivid story, but it is probably safe to say that the effect of Patrick Henry’s oratory was to convince his audiences to follow him no matter what the cost rather t.lJ.an to incite them to violent action. Consider the gentler aspects of his art. As noted, even in the melodramatic description just preceding, his orations often started in a calm, almost diffident manner. William Wirt’s reconstruction of the “Liberty or Death” speech begins like this: “No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as the abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the house. But different men often see the same subject in different light; and therefore I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those

gentlemen, if entertaining, as I do, opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely, and without reserve ... “

This technique of beginning a speech in a calm, quiet and nonconfrontational way, then building to an irresistible but always controlled climax seemed to come naturally to Patrick Henry. “He was extremely kind to young men in debate, and ever ready to compliment even his adversaries where it was merited,” recalled Judge Roane. “I think he was the best humored man in society I almost ever knew,” conceded Thomas Jefferson. For someone who flirted so often with controversy-even danger- Patrick Henry had few personal enemies.

Although Henry was by no means a wild man on the podium, he admittedly did not adhere to the more conservative school of oratory of his day, which was restrained, always decorous, and often filled with learned references to classic texts. Henry’s speeches were more likely to contain quotations from or allusions to the Bible.

Patrick Henry’s father, John, was a member of the establishment Anglican Church. His uncle, for whom he was named, was a member of its clergy. Although throughout his life Henry fought to defend the rights of religious dissenters, he remained an Anglican until he died.

Yet an evangelical influence, which came through Henry’s mother, dominated his speaking. She took young Patrick with her to hear the great George Whitfield preach. The equally magnetic Rev. Samuel Davies was much in demand for revivals in the Henrys’ native Hanover County. On the

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way home, Mrs. Henry had the boy repeat, or perhaps re-enact portions of the sermon they had just heard, and one suspects that he did not need much prodding.

“He combined an actor’s flair with a preacher’s fervor, and he spoke politically in the voices of the evangelical revolt,” Henry Mayer, Patrick Henry’s most recent biographer, has written. The Liberty or Death speech, Mayer believes is really a sermon in the evangelical style, a call to make a choice. “This was a political rather than a religious choice, but a clear personal choice none the less.”

Historian Richard Beeman calls Henry’s political style “a blending of some old-fashioned religious moralism with a very new, much more egalitarian and more intimate relationship between the revolutionary orator and his audience ... “ Beeman believes that this style constituted “a change that has reverberated through the centuries from Andrew Jackson to William Jennings Bryan, to Pat Robertson, and perhaps even Jessie Jackson.” While this description gives recognition to Henry as the founder of a school of American political speakers, it still fails to explain fully the spell he cast over his audiences.

If Patrick Henry’s eloquence could cause Judge Roane’s Mr. Bradfute to almost fall out of his gallery seat and make Edward Carrington vow to be buried “on this spot,” it could also haunt the rational mind of that quintessential American son of the Enlightenment, Thomas Jefferson. “Although it was difficult when Henry had spoken to tell what he had said, yet while speaking it always seemed directly to the point,” the Sage of Monticello

grudgingly admitted years later. “When he had spoken in opposition to my opinion he had produced a great effect, and I myself had been delighted and moved. I had asked myself when he had ceased, what the devil has he said? and could never answer the enquiry.”

There is very likely more honesty in Jefferson’s confession than malice. Here is Judge Roane again, a friendlier witness, with essentially the same observation: ‘The tones of his voice, to say nothing of his matter and his gestures, were insinuated into the feelings of his hearers in a manner that baffled all description. It seemed to operate by mere sympathy, and by his tones alone it seemed to me that he could make you cry or laugh at pleasure.”

Edmund Randolph’s summation of the orator’s genius still rings true today: “For grand impressions in the defense of liberty, the Western world has not yet been able to exhibit a rival.”

Patrick Henry mesmerized his listeners in the cause of freedom over two hundred years ago. But for us today it is what he said rather than how he said it that makes his words live and assures his place in history.

Give Me Liberty Or Give Me DeathSpeech by Patrick Henry to the Second Virginia Revolutionary Convention meeting at St. John’s Church, Richmond, on 23 March 1775

No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining

as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The questing before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.

Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it. I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have

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been pleased to solace themselves and the House. Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm

which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free-- if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending--if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained--we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!

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!

James M. Elson is Executive Vice President Emeritus of the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation, 1988-2000. He continues to write and edit. He complied and annotated Patrick Henry in His Speeches and Writings and in the Words of His Contemporaries, © 2007. Jim and his wife Sue live in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Historic Buildings Get a Facelift — All Receive a Fresh Coat of Paint

Over the course of about four weeks in March and April, the his-toric clapboard buildings at Red Hill received a major aesthetic improve-ment — a brand new coat of paint! Each structure was hand-scraped and repainted in order to preserve the existing wood, which had begun to be exposed as the previous coat of paint peeled away. Not only does this pre-

serve the buildings at Red Hill, it also serves to rejuvenate their beauty.

The buildings were all repainted in classical white, a color that approxi-mates what the buildings would have looked like in 1770 when the main house was built. It is an off-white color that reflects the linseed oil added to 18th century paint, which adds just a hint of yellow.

strong national government. Can you imagine the U.S. Constitution without its first ten amendments?

You can read more of Patrick Henry’s speeches at the Ratifying Convention in: “The Debates in the Several State Con-ventions, on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, as Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia, in 1787. Together with the Journal Of The

Federal Convention, Luther Martin’s Let-ter, Yates’s Minutes, Congressional Opin-ions, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of ‘98--’99, and Other Illustrations of the Constitution. In Four Volumes. Second Edition, with Considerable Additions. Collected and Revised from Contemporary Publications, by Jonathan Elliot. Published under the Sanction of Congress. 1836.”

In the past, there has been debate concerning whether oil-based paint or acrylic paint is most effective at preserving the buildings. The Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation has used this opportunity to study which type of paint is truly superior. As a result, Patrick Henry’s law office received a coat of oil paint, while acrylic paint was applied to the rest of the buildings. The Foundation will monitor the per-

What Would Henry Say? (cont.) Museum Shop Online

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Did you know that Red Hill has an online museum shop where you can purchase exclusive merchandise related to Patrick Henry and Red Hill? You can find rare and interesting products that make perfect gifts for loved ones — and even yourself ! Log on today to redhill.org to browse nearly one hundred unique goods offered exclusively by the Red Hill Museum Shop.

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...they have a better sense of what it would have been like...

fomance of each type of paint over time to discern which is best for future use.

As part of the repainting process, the law office also had a few courses of siding replaced, and areas affected by water damage were repaired. The Foun-dation also installed copper shields in strategic areas to protect from future rainwater damage.

The law office repairs and repaint-ing of all the clapboard structures were funded by the Helen S. and Charles G. Patterson Jr. Charitable Foundation Trust, which has also sponsored past repairs of the historic structures at Red Hill.

Referring to the new shutters on the Patrick Henry house in addition to the new paint, Karen Gorham, Execu-tive Vice President of the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation, said that the new improvements “have significantly improved the visitor experience here at Red Hill. Now I feel that when folks enter the site, they have a better sense of what it would have been like to experi-ence Red Hill in Henry’s time.”

Come and see the freshly painted buildings on a warm summer day — you’ll be glad you did!

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Red Hillthe Patrick Henry National Memorial

The Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation is a charitable non-profit corporation devoted to education and historic preservation. The Foundation promotes educational and research programs about the life, times, philosophy, and legacy of Patrick Henry. As part of that mission, the Foundation maintains and interprets Red Hill, Patrick Henry’s last home and burial place, as a historic site and museum. A copy of the Foundation’s most recent financial statement is available from the State Division of Consumer Affairs, Box 1163, Richmond, Virginia 23206.

1250 Red Hill Road, Brookneal, Virginia 24528

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President: Gene DixonExecutive Vice President: Karen GorhamVice President: Nancy Rowland

President Emeritus: Thomas Gregory Ward

Upcoming EventsMay 11thNaturalizationCeremonyCeremony begins at 11am at Red Hill

May 29thPatrick Henry’s 276th Birthday and Wreath Laying Ceremony2pm at Red Hill

June 2ndTastings on theTerraceRed Hill Wine tasting noon to 5pm

July 4thIndependence DayRed Hill Celebration 3pm-9:00pm

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