Editing Patrick Henry (section)

==Early life (1736–1759)==
Henry was born on the family farm, [[Birthplace of Patrick Henry|Studley]], in Hanover County in the [[Colony of Virginia]], on May 29, 1736.<ref name=a>{{cite web|first=Thad|last=Tate|title=Henry, Patrick|work=[[American National Biography Online]]|date=February 2000|url=http://www.anb.org/articles/01/01-00396.html|access-date=October 8, 2017|url-access=subscription }}</ref> His father was John Henry, an immigrant from [[Aberdeenshire]], Scotland, who had attended [[King's College, Aberdeen|King's College]], University of Aberdeen, before emigrating to Virginia in the 1720s.{{sfn|Meade|pp=13–18}} Settling in Hanover County in about 1732, John Henry married [[Sarah Winston Syme Henry|Sarah Winston Syme]], a wealthy widow from a prominent local family of English ancestry.{{sfn|Meade|pp=21–24}}

Patrick Henry shared his name with his uncle, an [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] minister, and until the elder Patrick's death in 1777 often went as Patrick Henry Jr.{{sfn|Kukla|p=13}} Henry attended a local school until about the age of 10. There was no academy in Hanover County, and he was tutored at home by his father.{{sfn|Kidd|p=9}} The young Henry engaged in the typical recreations of the times, such as music and dancing, and was particularly fond of hunting.{{sfn|Kidd|p=12}} Since the family's stock, considerable lands, and slaves would pass to his older half-brother John Syme Jr.,{{sfn|Mayer|p=32}} due to the custom of [[primogeniture]], Henry needed to make his own way in the world. At age 15, he became a clerk for a local merchant and a year later opened a store with his older brother [[William Henry (brother of Patrick Henry)|William]]. The store was not successful.<ref name = "a" /> His sisters were pioneer and writer [[Annie Henry Christian]] and  [[Elizabeth Henry Campbell Russell]], a Methodist lay leader.<ref name="Terry">{{Cite web |last=Terry |first=Gail S. |date=2006 |title=Annie Henry Christian |url=https://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.php?b=Christian_Annie_Henry |access-date=October 18, 2021 |website=Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Library of Virginia |archive-date=October 18, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211018082738/https://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.php?b=Christian_Annie_Henry |url-status=live }}</ref>

The religious revival known as the [[Great Awakening]] reached Virginia when Henry was a child. His father was staunchly Anglican, but his mother often took him to hear [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterian]] preachers. Although Henry remained a lifelong Anglican communicant, ministers such as [[Samuel Davies (clergyman)|Samuel Davies]] taught him that it is not enough to save one's own soul, but one should help to save society. He also learned that oratory should reach the heart, not just persuade based on reason.{{sfn|Kukla|pp=13–23}} His oratorical technique would follow that of these preachers, seeking to reach the people by speaking to them in their own language.{{sfn|Kidd|p=37}}

Religion played a key role in Henry's life; his father and namesake uncle were both devout and were both major influences in his life. Nevertheless, he was uncomfortable with the role of the Anglican Church as the established religion in Virginia, and he fought for religious liberty throughout his career. Henry wrote to a group of [[Baptists in the United States|Baptists]] who had sent a letter of congratulations following Henry's 1776 election as governor, "My earnest wish is, that Christian charity, forbearance and love may unite all different persuasions as brethren."<ref name = "henrychrist" /> He criticized his state of Virginia, feeling that slavery and lack of religious toleration had retarded its development. He told the [[Virginia Ratifying Convention]] in 1788, "That religion or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence, and therefore all men have an equal, natural and unalienable right to the [[Freedom of religion|free exercise of religion]] according to the dictates of conscience, and that no particular religious sect or society ought to be favored or established by law in preference to others."<ref name = "henrychrist">{{cite web|last=Wells|first=James M.|title=The Christian Philosophy of Patrick Henry|url=http://www.christianhistorysociety.com/henrythesis1.html|access-date=November 16, 2017|publisher=Christian History Society|archive-date=July 3, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170703223229/http://christianhistorysociety.com/henrythesis1.html|url-status=usurped}}</ref>

[[File:Shelton House - Shenk.jpg|thumb|right|View of [[Rural Plains]] near Totopotomoy Creek in Virginia. Henry was reportedly married to Sarah Shelton in the parlor.]]
In 1754, Henry married Sarah Shelton, reportedly in the parlor of her family house, [[Rural Plains]]. (It also became known as Shelton House.) As a wedding gift, her father gave the couple six slaves and the {{convert|300|acre|km2|adj=on}} [[Pine Slash|Pine Slash Farm]] near [[Mechanicsville, Virginia|Mechanicsville]]. Pine Slash was exhausted from earlier cultivations, and Henry worked with the slaves to clear fresh fields. The latter half of the 1750s were years of drought in Virginia, and after the main house burned down, Henry gave up and moved to the Hanover Tavern, owned by Sarah's father.{{sfn|Mayer|pp=45–48}} 

Henry often served as host at Hanover Tavern as part of his duties and entertained the guests by playing the fiddle. Among those who stayed there during this time was [[Thomas Jefferson]], aged 17, en route to his studies at the [[College of William & Mary]], and who later wrote that he became well acquainted with Henry then, despite their age difference of six years.{{sfn|Mayer|p=50}} Jefferson in 1824 told [[Daniel Webster]], "Patrick Henry was originally a bar-keeper", a characterization that Henry's biographers have found to be unfair; that his position was more general than that, and that the main business of Hanover Tavern was serving travelers, not alcohol. [[William Wirt (Attorney General)|William Wirt]], Henry's earliest biographer, rejects Jefferson's suggestion that Henry's profession was a bartender but notes it would have been "very natural in Mr. Henry's situation" to do what was necessary to ensure that guests were properly seen to.{{sfn|Kukla|pp=31–32}}