Red Hill Patrick Henry National Memorial, in

Charlotte County, Virginia Charlotte County is a United States county located in the south central part of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Its county seat is the town of Charlotte Court House. As of the 2020 census, the county population was 11,529. Charlotte County is ...

, near the Town of Brookneal, is the final home and burial place of

Founding Father The following list of national founding figures is a record, by country, of people who were credited with establishing a state. National founders are typically those who played an influential role in setting up the systems of governance, (i.e. ...

Patrick Henry Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736June 6, 1799) was an American attorney, planter, politician and orator known for declaring to the Second Virginia Convention (1775): " Give me liberty, or give me death!" A Founding Father, he served as the first a ...

, the fiery legislator and orator of the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

. Henry bought Red Hill Plantation at his retirement in 1794 and occupied it until 1799, the year of his death. In addition to the main house, Henry used another building as his law office. There were also dependencies and slave quarters on the working 2,930-acre

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

plantation."History of Red Hill." Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation. https://www.redhill.org/about/redhill#paragraphs-item-115 The

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

was located on the

Staunton River The Roanoke River ( ) runs long through southern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina in the United States. A major river of the southeastern United States, it drains a largely rural area of the coastal plain from the eastern edge of the App ...

for transportation. Congress authorized the establishment of a Patrick Henry National Monument on August 15, 1935 (49 Stat. 652) pending the acquisition of the property by the Secretary of the Interior. The purchase never occurred, and the enabling legislation was repealed on December 21, 1944 (58 Stat. 852). The site was taken over by the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation, established in 1944, which in the 1950s and 1960s restored Henry's law office and preserved his grave onsite. It also reconstructed his last home and several dependencies. A new museum was built to provide for interpretation of his life and place in 1976. Red Hill Plantation was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

on February 14, 1978. The national memorial was authorized by the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

on May 13, 1986. Owned by the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation, Red Hill is operated as a house museum and is an affiliated area of the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

, meaning that the Foundation can request certain assistance from the NPS in preserving and interpreting the site. Planning in the 2000s for the site includes a master plan to guide improvements. The first project, supported by 2006 grant money, will be improvements and additions of walking trails to help visitors understand transportation and plantation agriculture. It will relate the site to 18th century bateaux trade and transportation along the river, its ferry site, and the later addition of a 19th-century "former railroad whistle stop". It will restore plantation roads to the plantation distillery, laundry and graveyard of enslaved African Americans. Currently, the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation cares for about 1,000 acres of Henry's original land.

Gallery

File:Patrick henry.JPG, Patrick Henry by George Bagby Matthews, c. 1891. File:Red Hill Charlotte County Virginia 1907.jpg, Red Hill main house, c. 1907 File:Law office Red Hill Plantation Patrick Henry.jpg, Law office of Patrick Henry at Red Hill, 1950 File:Red Hill Patrick Henry National Memorial - visitor center.jpg, Red Hill Visitor Center File:Red Hill Patrick Henry National Memorial - tree original to time of Patrick Henry.jpg, The National Champion Osage Orange tree, over 350 years old.

References

External links

Red Hill — Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation

Red Hill, Law Office, State Route 619, Brookneal, Campbell County, VA
at the

Historic American Buildings Survey Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

(HABS)
Red Hill, 7 Miles Southeast of Brookneal, VA, south of State Route 619, Brookneal, Campbell County, VA
at HABS {{Authority control Museums in Charlotte County, Virginia National Memorials of the United States Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Houses in Charlotte County, Virginia Plantation houses in Virginia Protected areas established in 1986 History museums in Virginia Open-air museums in Virginia Henry, Patrick Georgian architecture in Virginia 1986 establishments in Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Charlotte County, Virginia Patrick Henry Historic American Buildings Survey in Virginia Monuments and memorials on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Slave cabins and quarters in the United States Homes of United States Founding Fathers

Gallery

See also

References

External links