Patrick Henry
... of Boston. Governor Dunmore canceled the assembly, but 89 of them gathered at the Raleigh Tavern and, under Henry's leadership, proposed that all the colonies meet in a Continental congress. In April 1775, after they heard that American colonists had clashed with British troops in Lexington, Henry learned that Governor Dunmore had stolen gunpowder from the Magazine in Williamsburg. Henry collected the militia of Hanover County and marched toward Williamsburg. He sent a message to the governor saying that the gunpowder will be returned to representatives of the colony. Governor Dunmore paid the Virginians money to pay off the debt of the gunpowder, then issued a proclamation outlawing "a certain Patrick Henry" for disturbing the peace of the colony. He served in the First Continental Congress in 1774, and gave his famous "Give me liberty or give me death" speech in May 1775 in Virginia. Henry became the first governor of the free state of ...