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American History

American Icons, Hidden Legacies: U.S. Heroes With Slaveholding Pasts

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13. Patrick Henry

13. Patrick Henry
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Patrick Henry remains immortalized for his impassioned cry, “Give me liberty, or give me death!” Yet, like many of his contemporaries, he continued to rely on the labor of enslaved people throughout his life. This fundamental contradiction between his ideals and actions underscores the paradoxes at the heart of the American Revolution. More about Henry’s complex legacy can be found at Encyclopedia Virginia.

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