For Researchers
Recommended Readings
Book
. Patrick Henry's Virginia: A Guide to the Homes and Sites in the Life of an American Patriot. 2001.
(Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation, 2001) Definitive guide to the places Patrick Henry lived and worked: available from the Museum Shop at Red Hill.
. Patrick Henry: Voice of the Revolution. New York; 2001.
An accurate biography written at the fifth-grade reading level.
. Patrick Henry, The Orator, Great American Orators, no. 8. (New York and Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press; 1990.
In the appendixes to this study of Henry's oratory, McCants publishes reliable texts for several of Henry's major speeches.
. Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, Ratification of the Constitution by the States, vols. 8-10, Virginia. Madison, Wis.; 1988.
(1988-1993) This modern edition is the definitive documentary source for the ratification of the Constitution. Vols. 8-10 deal with Virginia. It supplants the following earlier sources for the Virginia convention debates of 1788:
. Son of Thunder: Patrick Henry and the American Republic. New York; 1986.
Reliable and most recent full-length biography.
. Revolutionary Virginia: The Road to Independence. Charlottesville; 1973.
(1973-1983). Best complete documentation for the coming of the American Revolution in Virginia, 1763-1776.
Number of Volumes 7
. History of Virginia. Charlottesville; 1970.
Virginia Historical Society Documents, 9 [Charlottesville, 1970]). Valuable history of the American Revolution in Virginia written by an insider and participant who in 1786 succeeded Patrick Henry as governor. Attributes articles 15 and 16 of the Virginia Declaration of Rights to Henry's authorship.
. Patrick Henry: Practical Revolutionary. Philadelphia and New York; 1969.
Second volume of somewhat dated but thoroughly detailed biography.
. Patrick Henry: Patriot in the Making . Philadelphia and New York; 1957.
First volume of somewhat dated but thoroughly detailed biography.
. Official Letters of the Governors of the State of Virginia, vol. 1, The Letters of Patrick Henry. Richmond: 1926 ; 1926.
Valuable documentation of Henry's first three terms as governor, 1776-1779, selected from the state archives at the Library of Virginia. The papers from Henry's two terms as governor in the 1780s remain unpublished.