WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.819 Give me liberty or give me death. It is without 00:00:03.819 --> 00:00:06.540 a doubt the most fairest sequence of seven words 00:00:06.540 --> 00:00:08.300 in the history of the American Revolution. It 00:00:08.300 --> 00:00:11.199 really is. It's the ultimate rock star anthem 00:00:11.199 --> 00:00:15.060 of 1775. I mean, you hear that line and you instantly 00:00:15.060 --> 00:00:17.539 picture Patrick Henry. He's standing in a church 00:00:17.539 --> 00:00:20.480 pew, veins popping in his neck, fist in the air. 00:00:20.780 --> 00:00:22.820 Rallying the troops against the British Empire. 00:00:23.179 --> 00:00:25.579 Exactly. It's the definitive line in the sand 00:00:25.579 --> 00:00:27.579 moment for the country. It is. It's the moment 00:00:27.579 --> 00:00:31.260 the revolution arguably became inevitable. But 00:00:31.260 --> 00:00:34.280 here's where things get a bit complicated. Oh, 00:00:34.340 --> 00:00:36.200 I love when things get complicated. Right. Well, 00:00:36.280 --> 00:00:38.679 what if I told you that while this sentiment 00:00:38.679 --> 00:00:42.659 was very real, The specific recording of that 00:00:42.659 --> 00:00:45.460 speech, the text that we all memorized in school, 00:00:45.840 --> 00:00:48.200 is actually something of a remix created decades 00:00:48.200 --> 00:00:50.619 later. See, this is exactly why I love these 00:00:50.619 --> 00:00:52.439 deep dives. You take something everyone assumes 00:00:52.439 --> 00:00:54.859 is just set in stone, and you realize it's actually 00:00:54.859 --> 00:00:57.259 a lot more fluid. Very fluid. So for all of you 00:00:57.259 --> 00:01:00.039 listening today, we are unpacking the myth and 00:01:00.039 --> 00:01:03.539 the reality of Patrick Henry's famous cry. We've 00:01:03.539 --> 00:01:05.780 got a great stack of sources here. Historical 00:01:05.780 --> 00:01:08.299 accounts, 19th century biographies, even some 00:01:08.299 --> 00:01:11.019 analysis of 18th century theater. Yes. The theater 00:01:11.019 --> 00:01:13.900 aspect is wild. Right. So our mission is to figure 00:01:13.900 --> 00:01:17.299 out what actually happened on March 23, 1775. 00:01:17.819 --> 00:01:19.560 And perhaps even more importantly, we need to 00:01:19.560 --> 00:01:22.219 ask, you know, does it even matter if he actually 00:01:22.219 --> 00:01:26.109 said those specific words? Or is the myth more 00:01:26.109 --> 00:01:28.409 powerful than the actual transcript? Ooh, that 00:01:28.409 --> 00:01:30.489 is a philosophical curveball right out of the 00:01:30.489 --> 00:01:33.250 gate. I like it. But before we get to the conspiracy 00:01:33.250 --> 00:01:35.930 theories about who wrote what and the whole remix 00:01:35.930 --> 00:01:37.890 accusation, we really have to set the scene. 00:01:38.090 --> 00:01:40.049 Because this speech didn't just happen in a vacuum. 00:01:40.450 --> 00:01:42.909 No, and it didn't happen in a comfortable legislative 00:01:42.909 --> 00:01:45.530 hall either. Not at all. So the date is March 00:01:45.530 --> 00:01:50.269 23, 1775. The location is St. John's Episcopal 00:01:50.269 --> 00:01:53.230 Church in Richmond, Virginia. This was the second 00:01:53.230 --> 00:01:55.549 Virginia Convention. And the reason they are 00:01:55.549 --> 00:01:58.129 meeting in a church in Richmond rather than the 00:01:58.129 --> 00:02:00.150 Capitol building in Williamsburg is because it 00:02:00.150 --> 00:02:03.609 just wasn't safe, right? Exactly. Williamsburg 00:02:03.609 --> 00:02:06.230 was where the royal governor, Lord Dunmore, was 00:02:06.230 --> 00:02:09.330 stationed. The tensions with the British were 00:02:09.330 --> 00:02:12.349 already so high that the colonial leaders felt 00:02:12.349 --> 00:02:14.699 they needed to move inland. Get away from the 00:02:14.699 --> 00:02:17.259 immediate reach of the British authorities. Right. 00:02:17.259 --> 00:02:19.500 So they packed themselves into this church. And 00:02:19.500 --> 00:02:22.439 the room is full of absolute heavy hitters. Our 00:02:22.439 --> 00:02:24.900 sources note that future presidents George Washington 00:02:24.900 --> 00:02:27.460 and Thomas Jefferson are sitting right there. 00:02:27.919 --> 00:02:30.139 Richard Henry Lee is there. It's a packed house. 00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:33.379 But based on the accounts, the mood wasn't exactly 00:02:33.379 --> 00:02:35.780 let's go to war. Far from it. That's the key 00:02:35.780 --> 00:02:37.860 context we often forget when we look back. We 00:02:37.860 --> 00:02:39.840 look back with hindsight and think of the revolution 00:02:39.840 --> 00:02:42.240 was a foregone conclusion. Sure. But in March 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:45.750 1775, Most of the men in that room were moderates. 00:02:45.909 --> 00:02:47.930 I mean, they were wealthy, established landowners. 00:02:48.250 --> 00:02:50.349 They had a massive amount to lose. They were 00:02:50.349 --> 00:02:52.889 terrified of treason charges, because if they 00:02:52.889 --> 00:02:55.409 declare war and lose, they don't just get fined. 00:02:55.430 --> 00:02:58.590 No, they hang. Right. Precisely. Yeah. So the 00:02:58.590 --> 00:03:01.310 prevailing mood was caution. There were people 00:03:01.310 --> 00:03:03.509 arguing that they should just send another petition 00:03:03.509 --> 00:03:05.849 to the king, try to smooth things over one more 00:03:05.849 --> 00:03:08.090 time. And that's when Patrick Henry stands up. 00:03:08.270 --> 00:03:11.250 Right. He stands up to argue that, hoping for 00:03:11.250 --> 00:03:14.189 peace at this stage, was a complete delusion. 00:03:14.449 --> 00:03:16.509 He was basically the guy shaking them by the 00:03:16.509 --> 00:03:18.650 shoulders saying, wake up. He was introducing 00:03:18.650 --> 00:03:21.370 amendments to raise a militia independent of 00:03:21.370 --> 00:03:23.650 royal authority. Basically, he was arguing for 00:03:23.650 --> 00:03:26.189 the creation of a Virginian army to fight the 00:03:26.189 --> 00:03:29.530 British. And his core argument was incredibly 00:03:29.530 --> 00:03:32.610 simple. The war isn't coming. It's already here. 00:03:32.729 --> 00:03:34.729 I have the text here, or at least the text we 00:03:34.729 --> 00:03:37.389 think is right, and his rhetoric is just masterful. 00:03:37.710 --> 00:03:40.389 He systematically strips away that comfort blanket 00:03:40.389 --> 00:03:43.430 of peace. Yes. He says, the war has actually 00:03:43.430 --> 00:03:46.669 begun. The next gale that sweeps from the north 00:03:46.669 --> 00:03:49.370 will bring to our ears the clash of resounding 00:03:49.370 --> 00:03:52.189 arms. That imagery is incredibly powerful. He's 00:03:52.189 --> 00:03:54.110 referring to the situation up in Massachusetts 00:03:54.110 --> 00:03:56.250 where the British were already clamping down 00:03:56.250 --> 00:03:58.580 hard. Right. He's telling these comfortable Virginia 00:03:58.580 --> 00:04:00.400 gentlemen, look, you might feel safe here in 00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:02.659 Richmond, but the chains are already clanking 00:04:02.659 --> 00:04:05.240 on the plains of Boston. He completely frames 00:04:05.240 --> 00:04:07.819 it as a binary choice. It isn't a debate about 00:04:07.819 --> 00:04:10.479 war versus peace anymore. It's freedom versus 00:04:10.479 --> 00:04:13.699 slavery. And we really should pause on that word 00:04:13.699 --> 00:04:18.680 slavery. Henry uses it repeatedly. He says, our 00:04:18.680 --> 00:04:22.860 chains are forged. He asks. Is life so dear or 00:04:22.860 --> 00:04:25.519 peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price 00:04:25.519 --> 00:04:28.699 of chains and slavery? Yeah. It's a very specific 00:04:28.699 --> 00:04:32.240 rhetorical device in the 18th century to describe 00:04:32.240 --> 00:04:35.019 political subjugation. Which creates a really 00:04:35.019 --> 00:04:38.079 complex and frankly uncomfortable irony given 00:04:38.079 --> 00:04:40.699 that many men in that room, including Patrick 00:04:40.699 --> 00:04:44.220 Henry himself, were enslavers. It is a heavy 00:04:44.220 --> 00:04:46.279 contradiction that runs through the entire era. 00:04:46.509 --> 00:04:48.689 But in the immediate context of this speech, 00:04:49.069 --> 00:04:50.850 he's using the word to trigger their deepest 00:04:50.850 --> 00:04:53.379 fear of losing autonomy. Now here is a detail 00:04:53.379 --> 00:04:55.560 from our sources that I honestly had no idea 00:04:55.560 --> 00:04:57.439 about before this deep dive. It wasn't just a 00:04:57.439 --> 00:04:59.579 speech, it was a full -blown physical performance. 00:04:59.660 --> 00:05:01.839 That was incredibly theatrical. Henry wasn't 00:05:01.839 --> 00:05:04.319 just a lawyer, he was a master of the stage. 00:05:04.500 --> 00:05:06.240 The sources mentioned that when he got to the 00:05:06.240 --> 00:05:08.519 climax, the whole give me liberty part, he didn't 00:05:08.519 --> 00:05:10.500 just shout it from his pew, he acted it out. 00:05:10.680 --> 00:05:13.300 Yes. Allegedly he took a bone paper knife. Which 00:05:13.300 --> 00:05:15.199 is essentially like a letter opener. Right, a 00:05:15.199 --> 00:05:17.339 bone paper knife, and he literally plunged it 00:05:17.339 --> 00:05:20.079 toward his own chest. He was imitating the Roman 00:05:20.079 --> 00:05:23.329 patriot. Cato the Younger. Okay. In the classical 00:05:23.329 --> 00:05:26.589 education of the 18th century, Cato was the ultimate 00:05:26.589 --> 00:05:29.490 symbol of Republican virtue. He was the man who 00:05:29.490 --> 00:05:31.930 famously committed suicide rather than submit 00:05:31.930 --> 00:05:34.750 to the tyranny of Julius Caesar. So by mimicking 00:05:34.750 --> 00:05:36.730 that stabbing motion with the letter opener, 00:05:36.990 --> 00:05:39.350 Henry is visually signaling to everyone in the 00:05:39.350 --> 00:05:42.250 room, I am the American Cato. I will die before 00:05:42.250 --> 00:05:46.029 I submit. Exactly. It's a suicide gesture. He's 00:05:46.029 --> 00:05:48.449 showing them that death is literally the only 00:05:48.449 --> 00:05:51.360 alternative to liberty. I just try to imagine 00:05:51.360 --> 00:05:53.939 seeing that in church. A guy pretending to stab 00:05:53.939 --> 00:05:55.899 himself with a letter opener while screaming 00:05:55.899 --> 00:05:58.139 about death. It must have been electrifying. 00:05:58.500 --> 00:06:01.500 It was. And it worked. But the reaction in the 00:06:01.500 --> 00:06:03.980 room wasn't immediate applause or cheering? No. 00:06:04.259 --> 00:06:07.459 No. It was stunned silence. Profound silence, 00:06:07.620 --> 00:06:09.639 the sources say. Edmund Randolph reported that 00:06:09.639 --> 00:06:11.860 the convention sat in dead silence for several 00:06:11.860 --> 00:06:14.800 minutes. They were just processing the absolute 00:06:14.800 --> 00:06:17.639 gravity of what had just happened. George Mason, 00:06:17.660 --> 00:06:19.980 who was usually the cool, logical head in the 00:06:19.980 --> 00:06:22.540 room, he said later that the audience's passions 00:06:22.540 --> 00:06:25.180 were not their own after Henry spoke. Not their 00:06:25.180 --> 00:06:27.259 own. That is such a great description. It's like 00:06:27.259 --> 00:06:30.079 he cast a spell over the whole congregation. 00:06:30.639 --> 00:06:32.839 And there's this amazing anecdote in our materials 00:06:32.839 --> 00:06:35.360 about a guy named Edward Carrington. Ah, yes. 00:06:36.040 --> 00:06:38.639 Carrington wasn't even inside the church. It 00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:41.970 was so packed that he was forced to listen. from 00:06:41.970 --> 00:06:44.569 a window outside. He was so moved by what he 00:06:44.569 --> 00:06:46.410 heard through that open window that he requested 00:06:46.410 --> 00:06:49.250 to be buried at that exact spot. Yeah. And get 00:06:49.250 --> 00:06:53.230 this, in 1810, he got his wish. He is literally 00:06:53.230 --> 00:06:55.610 buried right where he stood listening to Patrick 00:06:55.610 --> 00:06:57.230 Henry. That really highlights that this wasn't 00:06:57.230 --> 00:06:59.829 just some logical argument for a militia. It 00:06:59.829 --> 00:07:03.589 was a visceral, emotional event. It changed people 00:07:03.589 --> 00:07:06.050 on a deeply personal level. Then it had immediate 00:07:06.050 --> 00:07:08.689 results, too. The spell worked. The convention 00:07:08.689 --> 00:07:11.129 passed the resolution. They voted to put the 00:07:10.990 --> 00:07:14.250 colony into a posture of defense. Which, as 18th 00:07:14.250 --> 00:07:16.829 century speak, forget the guns ready. Henry was 00:07:16.829 --> 00:07:18.610 immediately named chairman of the committee to 00:07:18.610 --> 00:07:20.910 build this new militia. But this is where the 00:07:20.910 --> 00:07:23.670 story usually fades to black for most of us. 00:07:23.790 --> 00:07:25.990 We think, OK, speech over. War starts a little 00:07:25.990 --> 00:07:28.370 while later. But our sources detail something 00:07:28.370 --> 00:07:30.449 called the gunpowder incident that happens just 00:07:30.449 --> 00:07:32.490 a month later. And this isn't just a footnote. 00:07:32.550 --> 00:07:35.589 It's like the action movie sequel to the courtroom 00:07:35.589 --> 00:07:38.829 drama. It really is. It proves that Henry wasn't 00:07:38.829 --> 00:07:43.470 just all talk. This happened in April 1775, right 00:07:43.470 --> 00:07:45.430 after the battles of Lexington and Concord up 00:07:45.430 --> 00:07:47.850 north. The news of those battles hadn't fully 00:07:47.850 --> 00:07:49.990 arrived in Virginia yet. OK. But the governor 00:07:49.990 --> 00:07:53.269 of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, realized things were 00:07:53.269 --> 00:07:57.149 getting extremely dangerous. He saw these militias 00:07:57.149 --> 00:08:00.050 forming just like Henry asked for. So he decided 00:08:00.050 --> 00:08:02.449 to make a preemptive strike. He went after the 00:08:02.449 --> 00:08:05.449 ammo. He did. He ordered Royal Navy sailors to 00:08:05.449 --> 00:08:07.569 sneak into the magazine in Williamsburg in the 00:08:07.569 --> 00:08:09.920 dead of night and remove the gunpowder. Which 00:08:09.920 --> 00:08:11.680 effectively disarms the colony. You can have 00:08:11.680 --> 00:08:13.339 all the muskets in the world, but without powder, 00:08:13.379 --> 00:08:16.160 they're just heavy clubs. Exactly. And when Patrick 00:08:16.160 --> 00:08:19.480 Henry heard about this, he didn't write a sternly 00:08:19.480 --> 00:08:22.300 worded letter to the editor. He rallied his new 00:08:22.300 --> 00:08:25.420 militia, the very one he just argued into existence, 00:08:25.420 --> 00:08:28.199 and he marched on Williamsburg. He marched on 00:08:28.199 --> 00:08:30.519 the king's representative. I mean, that is treason, 00:08:30.759 --> 00:08:33.720 plain and simple. It was an absolute act of war. 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:36.480 As Henry's forces got closer to Williamsburg, 00:08:36.779 --> 00:08:39.450 they were gathering more men along the way. Lord 00:08:39.450 --> 00:08:41.850 Dunmore started to panic. He threatened to burn 00:08:41.850 --> 00:08:44.350 the town down. He threatened to free the enslaved 00:08:44.350 --> 00:08:47.210 population to fight the colonists. It was a completely 00:08:47.210 --> 00:08:49.830 chaotic situation. But it didn't end in a shootout, 00:08:49.850 --> 00:08:52.429 right? No, it didn't. It ended with a transaction. 00:08:52.950 --> 00:08:55.470 A wealthy intermediary stepped in to cool things 00:08:55.470 --> 00:08:58.909 down. A payment of 330 pounds was made to Henry 00:08:58.909 --> 00:09:01.360 to pay for the stolen powder. I looked at the 00:09:01.360 --> 00:09:05.299 notes on this. That is over fifty three thousand 00:09:05.299 --> 00:09:07.639 pounds or about sixty thousand dollars in today's 00:09:07.639 --> 00:09:10.259 money. That is a serious settlement. He was a 00:09:10.259 --> 00:09:13.059 massive sum. Henry took the money, issued a formal 00:09:13.059 --> 00:09:16.340 receipt and sent his militia home. But the symbolic 00:09:16.340 --> 00:09:18.779 victory was what really mattered. He had forced 00:09:18.779 --> 00:09:21.559 the royal governor to back down. Lord Dunmore 00:09:21.559 --> 00:09:24.480 was fearing for his safety and eventually retreated 00:09:24.480 --> 00:09:27.320 to a naval vessel off the coast. That effectively 00:09:27.320 --> 00:09:29.919 ended royal control of the Virginia colony. So 00:09:29.919 --> 00:09:32.480 the speech worked. It fired people up, they mobilized, 00:09:32.500 --> 00:09:34.259 they got paid, and they kicked out the governor. 00:09:34.919 --> 00:09:36.960 Patrick Henry eventually becomes the first governor 00:09:36.960 --> 00:09:40.460 of the independent state. Case closed, history 00:09:40.460 --> 00:09:42.980 written. I know that tone. Here comes the twist. 00:09:43.210 --> 00:09:45.669 This is where we have to dive into the aha moment 00:09:45.669 --> 00:09:48.850 regarding the text of the speech itself. We have 00:09:48.850 --> 00:09:51.269 to talk about where those famous words, give 00:09:51.269 --> 00:09:54.230 me liberty or give me death actually came from. 00:09:54.309 --> 00:09:56.490 Okay, lay it on me. I assume someone was taking 00:09:56.490 --> 00:09:59.470 notes in the church. That is the problem. The 00:09:59.470 --> 00:10:01.509 speech was not written down when it was delivered 00:10:01.509 --> 00:10:06.049 in 1775. Wait, no stenographer. No diary entry 00:10:06.049 --> 00:10:08.090 from Jefferson saying Henry just dropped this 00:10:08.090 --> 00:10:11.149 exact cool line. Not really, no. We have the 00:10:11.149 --> 00:10:13.490 resolution that passed the actual legal text. 00:10:14.090 --> 00:10:16.470 But the text of the speech itself, it vanished 00:10:16.470 --> 00:10:18.769 into the air the moment he said it. So how do 00:10:18.769 --> 00:10:21.350 we know what he said? We know it. Or rather, 00:10:21.409 --> 00:10:23.509 we think we know it because of a man named William 00:10:23.509 --> 00:10:26.090 Wirt. Wirt was a biographer who decided to write 00:10:26.090 --> 00:10:28.990 the definitive life story of Patrick Henry. But 00:10:28.990 --> 00:10:31.909 here is the major catch. Wirt published his biography 00:10:31.909 --> 00:10:35.820 in 1817. Let me just do the math on that. 1775 00:10:35.820 --> 00:10:40.059 to 1817. That is 42 years later. And Patrick 00:10:40.059 --> 00:10:42.100 Henry had been dead for 18 years by the time 00:10:42.100 --> 00:10:44.960 the book even came out. So Wirt couldn't exactly 00:10:44.960 --> 00:10:48.320 call him up to fact check the draft. Precisely. 00:10:48.919 --> 00:10:51.220 Wirt had to completely reconstruct the speech 00:10:51.220 --> 00:10:53.600 based on the recollections of elderly men who 00:10:53.600 --> 00:10:56.450 had heard it in their youth. He was writing letters 00:10:56.450 --> 00:10:58.970 to these old revolutionaries asking, hey, do 00:10:58.970 --> 00:11:01.129 you remember what he said four decades ago? I 00:11:01.129 --> 00:11:02.850 can barely remember what I said in a meeting 00:11:02.850 --> 00:11:05.769 last week. I can't imagine trying to reconstruct 00:11:05.769 --> 00:11:09.409 a complex political speech from 40 years ago, 00:11:09.649 --> 00:11:12.090 verbatim. That is exactly the issue historians 00:11:12.090 --> 00:11:14.789 have. One of the people Wirt reached out to was 00:11:14.789 --> 00:11:17.259 a man named St. George Tucker. Tucker really 00:11:17.259 --> 00:11:19.399 tried to help. He sent Wirt a letter with his 00:11:19.399 --> 00:11:22.059 recollection, but he explicitly admitted it was 00:11:22.059 --> 00:11:24.580 in vain to try and recall the exact speech. Sure. 00:11:24.860 --> 00:11:27.200 He provided about two paragraphs of his rough 00:11:27.200 --> 00:11:29.679 memory just trying to capture the general spirit 00:11:29.679 --> 00:11:31.919 of the argument. Two paragraphs. But the speech 00:11:31.919 --> 00:11:34.419 we all read in the history books is pages long. 00:11:34.759 --> 00:11:37.340 It's this sweeping masterpiece of rhetoric. It 00:11:37.340 --> 00:11:39.860 is a masterpiece. Yeah. Because William Wirt 00:11:39.860 --> 00:11:41.840 took those two paragraphs and he filled in the 00:11:41.840 --> 00:11:44.840 blanks. He used his own incredible skill as a 00:11:44.840 --> 00:11:48.029 writer and a lawyer. to create the long, flowery, 00:11:48.269 --> 00:11:50.289 beautifully structured speech we know today. 00:11:50.750 --> 00:11:52.950 So you're saying give me liberty or give me death 00:11:52.950 --> 00:11:55.549 might be, what, William Wirt fan fiction? Fan 00:11:55.549 --> 00:11:58.350 fiction might be a bit harsh, but historical 00:11:58.350 --> 00:12:00.789 reconstruction is very accurate. Historians since 00:12:00.789 --> 00:12:03.149 the 1970s have been very skeptical about the 00:12:03.149 --> 00:12:05.370 authenticity of the Wirt version. They point 00:12:05.370 --> 00:12:07.509 out that the style doesn't actually match Henry's 00:12:07.509 --> 00:12:11.070 other known, documented speeches. How so? Was 00:12:11.070 --> 00:12:13.750 Henry just not that polished normally? It's not 00:12:13.750 --> 00:12:15.909 about polish. It's about the content of his typical 00:12:15.909 --> 00:12:18.490 arguments. Whenever Henry argued for forming 00:12:18.490 --> 00:12:21.389 militias in other contexts, he almost always 00:12:21.389 --> 00:12:23.850 invoked the fear of Indian attacks on the frontier. 00:12:24.110 --> 00:12:26.809 That was his go -to argument to scare people 00:12:26.809 --> 00:12:29.970 into arming themselves. But Wirt's version leaves 00:12:29.970 --> 00:12:32.830 that out entirely. Interesting. So Wirt strips 00:12:32.830 --> 00:12:35.590 out the messy, uncomfortable frontier politics 00:12:35.590 --> 00:12:38.269 and makes the whole thing purely about high -minded 00:12:38.269 --> 00:12:42.179 liberty. Exactly. and a surviving firsthand account, 00:12:42.779 --> 00:12:45.139 one of the very few partial notes we actually 00:12:45.139 --> 00:12:48.320 have mentioned, that Henry used some pretty graphic 00:12:48.320 --> 00:12:50.700 name -calling during the speech. Really? Yeah, 00:12:50.840 --> 00:12:52.480 he was a rough, aggressive speaker when he needed 00:12:52.480 --> 00:12:55.720 to be. But Wirt's version is very sanitized. 00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:58.980 It reads more like a noble Roman senator speaking, 00:12:59.340 --> 00:13:01.759 not a Virginia back country lawyer. So the most 00:13:01.759 --> 00:13:04.399 famous speech in American history might be largely 00:13:04.399 --> 00:13:06.980 the invention of a biographer writing almost 00:13:06.980 --> 00:13:09.299 half a century later, just trying to create a 00:13:09.299 --> 00:13:11.539 legend. That is the consensus of many modern 00:13:11.539 --> 00:13:14.019 historians. Wirt wasn't just recording history. 00:13:14.120 --> 00:13:16.700 He was building a national myth. But wait, if 00:13:16.700 --> 00:13:19.179 Wirt made up the bulk of it... Where did he get 00:13:19.179 --> 00:13:21.200 the specific line, give me liberty or give me 00:13:21.200 --> 00:13:23.440 death? Did he just pull it out of thin air? Or 00:13:23.440 --> 00:13:26.080 did Henry actually say that one part? This leads 00:13:26.080 --> 00:13:28.500 us right to the cultural context of the time. 00:13:29.080 --> 00:13:31.720 You see, that phrase or variations of it was 00:13:31.720 --> 00:13:34.179 already in the cultural water, so to speak. It 00:13:34.179 --> 00:13:36.500 wasn't an original invention by Henry or Wirt. 00:13:36.720 --> 00:13:38.679 Who said it first then? Well, remember how we 00:13:38.679 --> 00:13:41.019 talked about the bone knife and the suicide gesture 00:13:41.019 --> 00:13:43.500 mimicking Cato? Right, the Roman guy. There was 00:13:43.500 --> 00:13:47.860 a very direct link to a play called Cato, a tragedy, 00:13:48.379 --> 00:13:51.279 which was written in 1713. So it was an old classic 00:13:51.279 --> 00:13:53.700 by the time Henry was speaking. It was incredibly 00:13:53.700 --> 00:13:55.759 popular in the American colonies. It was essentially 00:13:55.759 --> 00:13:58.759 the Hamilton of its day. George Washington absolutely 00:13:58.759 --> 00:14:00.899 loved it. He actually had to perform for the 00:14:00.899 --> 00:14:03.820 troops at Valley Forge years later to boost their 00:14:03.820 --> 00:14:06.259 morale. So everyone in that church would have 00:14:06.259 --> 00:14:09.399 known this play. Most likely, yes. Yeah. And 00:14:09.399 --> 00:14:13.179 here is the kicker. There is a line in act two 00:14:13.179 --> 00:14:15.720 scene four of that play that goes it is not now 00:14:15.720 --> 00:14:19.120 a time to talk of ought But chains or conquest 00:14:19.120 --> 00:14:21.860 liberty or death liberty or death. It's right 00:14:21.860 --> 00:14:23.899 there. It is right there So we have two distinct 00:14:23.899 --> 00:14:26.879 possibilities one Patrick Henry who was already 00:14:26.879 --> 00:14:29.679 acting out the suicide scene of Cato? Also quoted 00:14:29.679 --> 00:14:31.820 the line from the play because he knew it would 00:14:31.820 --> 00:14:33.740 perfectly resonate with his audience, which makes 00:14:33.740 --> 00:14:36.299 total sense He's basically sampling the pop culture 00:14:36.299 --> 00:14:38.539 of the day to make his point hit harder It's 00:14:38.539 --> 00:14:42.399 exactly, or possibility, too. William Wirt, writing 00:14:42.399 --> 00:14:45.340 40 years later, knew that Henry mimicked Cato. 00:14:45.620 --> 00:14:47.899 So he just inserted the line from the play into 00:14:47.899 --> 00:14:50.299 the written speech because it fit the theatrical 00:14:50.299 --> 00:14:52.340 vibe he was trying to recreate. Either way, it 00:14:52.340 --> 00:14:54.440 wasn't a brand new sentence. It was a deliberate 00:14:54.440 --> 00:14:56.960 cultural reference. And it goes back even further 00:14:56.960 --> 00:14:59.720 than that, too. You can trace similar sentiments 00:14:59.720 --> 00:15:02.720 back to the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320 regarding 00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:05.740 Scottish independence. Really? Yes. And handles 00:15:05.740 --> 00:15:09.259 oratorio Judas MacMaeus. from 7046 has the explicit 00:15:09.259 --> 00:15:13.259 line, resolve my sons on liberty or death. So 00:15:13.259 --> 00:15:16.080 Patrick Henry or Wirt was tapping into a very 00:15:16.080 --> 00:15:18.919 old, very established tradition. Liberty or death 00:15:18.919 --> 00:15:21.179 is basically the Western shorthand for we are 00:15:21.179 --> 00:15:23.440 the good guys fighting for freedom. It communicates 00:15:23.440 --> 00:15:25.960 a specific set of values instantly. It completely 00:15:25.960 --> 00:15:28.559 removes the gray area. There is no compromise, 00:15:28.639 --> 00:15:30.799 only total victory or total erasure. But the 00:15:30.799 --> 00:15:34.360 story doesn't stop in 1775 or even 1817. What 00:15:34.360 --> 00:15:36.779 I found so fascinating in our sources is how 00:15:36.779 --> 00:15:39.460 this specific phrase became a global virus of 00:15:39.460 --> 00:15:42.259 rebellion. It just spreads everywhere. It truly 00:15:42.259 --> 00:15:45.019 does. It totally transcends the American Revolution. 00:15:45.600 --> 00:15:48.259 Once Wirt put it in print, it became a universal 00:15:48.259 --> 00:15:51.299 slogan for resistance globally. The sources list 00:15:51.299 --> 00:15:54.240 so many examples of this. During the French Revolution, 00:15:54.539 --> 00:15:57.379 the famous motto liberty, equality, fraternity 00:15:57.379 --> 00:16:00.159 was sometimes written as liberty, equality, fraternity, 00:16:00.320 --> 00:16:03.080 or death. Which puts a much darker Robespierre 00:16:03.080 --> 00:16:06.679 -style spin on it. It implies, join us or you 00:16:06.679 --> 00:16:10.100 die. Then you have the Society of United Irishmen 00:16:10.100 --> 00:16:13.019 in the 1790s using liberty or death as their 00:16:13.019 --> 00:16:15.779 official slogan. Moving into South America, the 00:16:15.779 --> 00:16:18.120 national anthem of Uruguay contains the line, 00:16:18.419 --> 00:16:22.120 liberty or with glory to die. In Brazil, Emperor 00:16:22.120 --> 00:16:25.820 Pedro I issued the famous cry from Ipiranga in 00:16:25.820 --> 00:16:28.879 1822, which was independence or death. It seems 00:16:28.879 --> 00:16:31.500 like every revolution needs this exact ultimatum. 00:16:31.759 --> 00:16:33.840 It's binary. There is no third option. That is 00:16:33.840 --> 00:16:36.139 exactly why it is so effective. It forces people 00:16:36.139 --> 00:16:38.080 to pick a side right then and there. You see 00:16:38.080 --> 00:16:40.740 in the Russian Civil War too, Nestor Makhno's 00:16:40.740 --> 00:16:43.399 anarchist army in Ukraine used liberty or death 00:16:43.399 --> 00:16:45.279 on their black flags. And it comes all the way 00:16:45.279 --> 00:16:47.559 up to modern times. The sources mention Malcolm 00:16:47.559 --> 00:16:51.549 X. Yes. His incredibly famous speech in 1964 00:16:51.549 --> 00:16:54.309 called The Ballot or the Bullet. In that speech, 00:16:54.610 --> 00:16:56.830 he riffs on this concept explicitly. He says, 00:16:57.350 --> 00:17:00.490 it'll be liberty or it will be death. But he 00:17:00.490 --> 00:17:03.830 adds a powerful twist. He says, the only difference 00:17:03.830 --> 00:17:06.170 about this kind of death. it'll be reciprocal. 00:17:06.509 --> 00:17:08.509 He's taking the Henry framework, that foundational 00:17:08.509 --> 00:17:11.109 American myth, and claiming it directly for the 00:17:11.109 --> 00:17:13.369 civil rights struggle. He's telling his audience, 00:17:13.730 --> 00:17:15.809 we are just as American as Patrick Henry, and 00:17:15.809 --> 00:17:18.369 we are willing to die and fight for the exact 00:17:18.369 --> 00:17:20.589 same rights. And even more recently, we see it 00:17:20.589 --> 00:17:22.630 in China. This was really surprising to find 00:17:22.630 --> 00:17:25.970 in the research. It is stark. In 2012, a young 00:17:25.970 --> 00:17:28.710 village official named Ren Jianyu was sentenced 00:17:28.710 --> 00:17:30.869 to re -education through labor. And one of the 00:17:30.869 --> 00:17:32.529 pieces of evidence the state used against him 00:17:32.529 --> 00:17:34.970 was a t -shirt. A t -shirt? A t -shirt that simply 00:17:34.970 --> 00:17:38.250 said, give me liberty or give me death, in Chinese. 00:17:38.509 --> 00:17:40.690 That is incredible. A t -shirt with a quote from 00:17:40.690 --> 00:17:43.690 1775 is used as literal evidence of subversion 00:17:43.690 --> 00:17:46.930 in 2012. It shows how dangerous those words still 00:17:46.930 --> 00:17:50.740 are. to authoritarian regimes today. And in 2022, 00:17:50.960 --> 00:17:54.039 during the COVID -19 lockdown protests in Chungking, 00:17:54.640 --> 00:17:57.039 our sources show a man was filmed shouting that 00:17:57.039 --> 00:17:59.660 exact phrase repeatedly to a cheering crowd. 00:17:59.920 --> 00:18:03.700 It's amazing. A lawyer in Virginia in 1775, or 00:18:03.700 --> 00:18:06.220 maybe his biographer in 1817, puts these words 00:18:06.220 --> 00:18:09.880 together. And 250 years later, they're being 00:18:09.880 --> 00:18:11.759 used on the other side of the world to protest 00:18:11.759 --> 00:18:14.640 a lockdown. It speaks to the absolute universality 00:18:14.640 --> 00:18:17.640 of the human desire for autonomy. The specifics 00:18:17.640 --> 00:18:19.960 change, whether it's British taxes, colonial 00:18:19.960 --> 00:18:23.119 rule, segregation, lockdowns, but the core sentiment 00:18:23.119 --> 00:18:25.119 remains exactly the same. So let's bring it all 00:18:25.119 --> 00:18:26.799 back home for you listening. We have unpacked 00:18:26.799 --> 00:18:29.380 the speech, the theatrical stabbing, the gunpowder 00:18:29.380 --> 00:18:31.880 sequel, the ghostwriter controversy, and the 00:18:31.880 --> 00:18:34.240 global tour of the phrase. It is quite a journey 00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:36.500 for seven words. If you had to summarize the 00:18:36.500 --> 00:18:38.740 reality of this myth, what is the headline here? 00:18:38.980 --> 00:18:41.579 The headline is that the give me liberty or give 00:18:41.579 --> 00:18:44.900 me death speech is a perfect storm of history 00:18:44.900 --> 00:18:48.529 and memory. Patrick Henry definitely gave a fiery 00:18:48.529 --> 00:18:51.230 speech that started a war. He definitely marched 00:18:51.230 --> 00:18:54.609 for that gunpowder. But the specific words we 00:18:54.609 --> 00:18:57.930 quote, they are highly likely a reconstruction. 00:18:58.670 --> 00:19:01.549 A remix by William Wirt filtered heavily through 00:19:01.549 --> 00:19:04.109 the pop culture of the 18th century, like the 00:19:04.109 --> 00:19:06.670 play Cato. It's like a collaboration across time. 00:19:07.049 --> 00:19:09.329 Henry provided the fire and Wirt provided the 00:19:09.329 --> 00:19:11.720 poetry. That is a beautiful way to put it. Henry 00:19:11.720 --> 00:19:14.460 lived the action, but Wert wrote the script that 00:19:14.460 --> 00:19:16.759 we all remember. But it leaves us with that big 00:19:16.759 --> 00:19:19.180 question you teased at the very beginning. If 00:19:19.180 --> 00:19:22.099 Wert made up the best parts, is it a lie? This 00:19:22.099 --> 00:19:23.940 is the provocative thought I want to leave you 00:19:23.940 --> 00:19:26.200 with today. Does it actually matter if an audio 00:19:26.200 --> 00:19:28.880 recording would have matched Wert's text? The 00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:30.660 spirit of that speech burned itself into the 00:19:30.660 --> 00:19:32.720 memory of everyone in that church. It changed 00:19:32.720 --> 00:19:34.839 the course of history. It convinced a colony 00:19:34.839 --> 00:19:37.559 to go to war. So the effect was entirely real, 00:19:37.660 --> 00:19:41.039 even if the transcript wasn't. Exactly. Sometimes 00:19:41.039 --> 00:19:45.160 a myth becomes more powerful and perhaps more 00:19:45.160 --> 00:19:48.579 real in its consequences than the literal dry 00:19:48.579 --> 00:19:51.359 facts of what was whispered or shouted on a given 00:19:51.359 --> 00:19:54.539 day. The words, give me liberty or give me death, 00:19:55.160 --> 00:19:57.240 capture the absolute truth of the moment, even 00:19:57.240 --> 00:19:58.799 if they weren't the exact truth of the mouth. 00:19:59.000 --> 00:20:00.759 That is definitely something for you to chew 00:20:00.759 --> 00:20:03.279 on. History isn't just what happened. It's the 00:20:03.279 --> 00:20:05.539 story we tell ourselves about what happened. 00:20:05.779 --> 00:20:07.400 Thanks for taking this deep dive with us today. 00:20:07.619 --> 00:20:09.740 Always a pleasure. And to you listening, next 00:20:09.740 --> 00:20:11.619 time you hear a famous quote, maybe dig a little 00:20:11.619 --> 00:20:13.779 deeper. You never know what historical remix 00:20:13.779 --> 00:20:16.200 you might find. Catch you on the next deep dive.