He made the declaration, “Give me liberty, or give me death,” that defined the American Revolution. Yet Patrick Henry is a largely forgotten founding father, his accomplishments overshadowed by his oratory.
 
Historian Jon Kukla reacquaints us in a discussion of his authoritative new biography Patrick Henry: Champion of Liberty. A contemporary of Washington, Henry stood with John and Samuel Adams among the leaders of the colonial resistance to Britain that ultimately created the United States. He was five-term governor of Virginia, pushed hard for the first 10 amendments to the new constitution – the Bill of Rights – and backed George Washington and national unity against the bitter party divisions of the 1790s.
 
Kukla directed the Red Hill Patrick Henry National Memorial in Brookneal, Virginia, from 2000-07.