Patrick Henry was the most celebrated orator of the American Revolution. Because of his effectiveness in the Virginia House of Burgesses, Henry became the focal point of Virginia's opposition to British policy. After Lord Dunmore dissolved the Virginia legislature after the closing of the port of Boston in 1774, Henry organized a session of the legislature that met in the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg. The session set the plan in motion that led to the First Continental Congress.

At a meeting of the Virginia assembly in Richmond on March 23, 1775, he called on colonists to arm themselves, with the words: "Give me liberty, or give me death." In June 1776 he was elected governor of Virginia. Serving through 1779, he vigorously supported the war effort and dispatched George Rogers Clark to secure the western regions. He declined to attend the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and was an ardent supporter of state rights. He led the Virginia opposition to ratification of the federal Constitution.