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| Road to Revolution Heritage Trail |
The Road to Revolution Heritage Trail is a motor route that connects historic sites central to the life of Patrick Henry, orator of the Revolution and Virginia’s first governor. Many of the sites and institutions are south of Fredericksburg in Hanover County. It is the state's first trail focusing exclusively on the Revolution.
 St. John's Church, a national historic landmark, became famous as a living memorial to American liberty when over 100 Virginia colonial leaders, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, met in the church during the Second Virginia Convention of March 1775. Patrick Henry delivered his most famous oration, "Give me liberty, or give me death," to his fellow delegates inside the church.
Scotchtown was Patrick Henry's home from 1771 to 1778, during some of the most pivotal years of the American Revolution. It was from Scotchtown that he traveled to the First Continental COngress in Philadelphia in 1774 and to Richmond in 1775 to give his famous speech, "Liberty or Death" speech at St. John's Church. Scotchtown is a rare eight square plan house. Red Hill was Patrick Henry's last home and burial place, which called "one of the garden spots of the world." The seven historic buildings at Red Hill, renovated and reconstructed in the 1950s and 60s, enjoy a scenic vista overlooking the Staunton River Valley. In 1986 Congress designated Red Hill as a National Memorial "to honor for the benefit of present and future generations the entire life of Patrick Henry."
7. Studley Patrick Henry was born on May 29, 1736 at "Studley" in Hanover County. Patrick Henry was the second son of John Henry and his wife Sarah Winston Syme Henry. Two children died at young ages leaving two sons and seven daughters in the family.
"Rural Plains" near Studley was built 1723-1726 in Hanover County and is said to be the place that Patrick Henry married Sarah Shelton in 1754 when he was 18 years-old. Rural Plains was in the Shelton family for generations until 2006, when there were no direct descendants to inherit the property. it was acquired by the National Park Service. Search for Insider's Blog Articles about Rural Plains
9. Pine Slash Included in Sarah Shelton's dowry was a 300-acre tobacco farm in Hanover County called Pine Slash where Henry tried his hand at farming.
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Hanover Courthouse, built in 1735, 
Part of the Hanover County Historic District, which is listed in the Virginia and National Registers of Historic Places, the current building is part of the rare building set, once common yo early Virginia. John Shelton, father-in-law of Patrick Henry, ran the Shelton Tavern when Patrick Henry lived and studied law. Although the original tavern was destroyed, the current building has witnessed over 200 years of changes to Hanover County. The current building houses exhibits and tours that honor this long history and community life of all taverns associated with the courthouse.
Polegreen Church was one of the dissenter "reading houses" licensed in 1743. Polegreen's congregation called the Rev. Samuel Davies to Hanover to preach in 1748. Davies inspired a young Patrick Henry who attended the church as a young man with his mother, Sarah. Henry credited Davies with "teaching me what an orator should be." The original church structure burned in June 1864 and is now represented as a silhouette structure on its original foundations and archaeological site.
Hampden-Sydney College is a liberal arts college for men. Patrick Henry, believing that "every free state" should promote "useful knowledge amongst its citizens," helped to create the Collage in Prince Edwards County in 1775. Six of Henry's sons studied there. The 10th oldest college in the United States Hampden-Sydney also founded the Presbyterian Union Theological Seminary and the Medical College of Virginia.Like it? Share it!
