By Jarred Marlowe
A portrait of Patrick Henry hangs in the courtroom of the Martinsville-Henry County heritage Center & Museum in Uptown Martinsville. It serves as a reminder not only of Henry’s importance to the American Revolution, but also of his close ties to this area, where he lived for about five years, from 1779 to 1784. That time fell between the two periods when he served as Governor of Virginia.
Patrick Henry was one of the most passionate voices for independence, helping to lay the groundwork for the colonies’ break from Great Britain. While he is often remembered for his opposition to the Stamp Act, he is best known for his famous 1775 speech to the House of Burgesses at St. John’s Church in Richmond, where he reportedly delivered the infamous “Give me liberty or give me death” oration.
After completing a one-year term in 1777 as the first elected Governor of Virginia, Henry was chosen for two additional terms, the maximum allowed at the time. In 1779, he moved his family to Leatherwood Plantation in what is now Henry County. The plantation covered ten thousand acres and was jointly owned with his first cousin, Ann Wilson Carr, and her husband, Colonel George Waller.
Henry and his family arrived in the area during the height of the American Revolution. Two of his children were born here, along with other members of the family. One account suggests Henry believed Leatherwood was far enough from the fighting in eastern Virginia to offer his family greater safety from British forces. He was also a friend of General Joseph Martin, the man for whom Martinsville is named, and as governor Henry had appointed Martin as Virginia’s agent to the Cherokee Nation.
Despite its relative isolation, the region was not completely safe. The Revolution made nearly every part of the colonies vulnerable, both to British troops and to Loyalists. When Henry moved here in 1779, he may not have known that just a short time later, the war would be very close to home for many in the area. In February 1781, American forces under General Nathanael Greene were scrambling to cross over the Dan River near present day South Boston to evade Lord Cornwallis’ advancing British forces.
In 1780, residents of this area sent Patrick Henry back to the capital as their representative to the Virginia House of Delegates. In 1784, he was again elected governor by the legislature and was reelected in 1785. Shortly after his election in 1784, he moved his family to Chesterfield County.
Henry declined to attend the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, famously saying he “smelt a rat” and feared the creation of a monarchy. However, he did serve as a delegate to the Virginia Convention in 1788, which ratified the United States Constitution despite his objections. He strongly supported the addition of a Bill of Rights, especially protections for trial by jury. In 1789, he was chosen as a presidential elector from the Campbell District, which included the region between Danville and Lynchburg, and he joined the other electors in voting for George Washington.
In 1794, Henry and his wife retired to Red Hill near Brookneal. In his later years, he became concerned about the policies of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and supported Federalist John Marshall in his campaign for Congress. Although Marshall was related to Jefferson, he favored a stronger central government, a view he later put into practice as Chief Justice of the United States.
Late in life, Henry aligned himself with the Federalist Party and spoke out against the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, which argued that states could nullify federal laws. He warned that such ideas could lead to civil war. At George Washington’s urging, Henry ran for and was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates as a Federalist, but he died of stomach cancer three months before taking his seat. Before his death, he gave his enslaved people to relatives and granted his wife the authority to free some of them. He had earlier spoken against slavery as morally wrong and reportedly hoped it would one day be abolished.
Henry County was created in 1777 from Pittsylvania County and was named in Patrick Henry’s honor. In 1785, its northern portion was combined with part of Bedford County to form Franklin County. In 1790, the western portion became Patrick County, leaving the boundaries of Henry County as they remain today.
Several monuments at Leatherwood Plantation mark the site as one of Patrick Henry’s homes. In 1922, the Daughters of the American Revolution erected a ten foot granite marker there. A state historical marker has also been placed on Highway 58 near the site, though no one is quite sure exactly where Henry’s homeplace stood.
After passing through several of Henry’s heirs, Leatherwood Plantation eventually came into the hands of the locally prominent Hairston family. Over time, the property was divided into multiple tracts of land, leaving virtually nothing left of Henry’s time in the area.
Jarred Marlowe is a local resident and historian. He is a member of the Col. George Waller Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, the Blue & Gray Education Society, and the committee chair for the Martinsville-Henry County 250 Committee. He may be reached at marloweja15@gmail.com.
