Red Hill

July 9th, 2010
“Give me liberty or give me death.” We probably all learned these famous words spoken by Patrick Henry. Henry was more outspoken and direct in his opposition to Parliamentary taxation than many others. He quickly established a reputation as an uncompromising opponent of imperial policy. Henry attended the first session of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia in September 1774 as one of Virginia’s seven delegates and initially received several important committee assignments.
Red Hill is the plantation of this voice of the revolution, located near Brooksneal VA. It is a beautiful plantation with the original home, the cabin of the coachman, Harrison and his wife Milly who cooked for the Henrys’, the smokehouse, the blacksmith shop, the carriage house and the family burial sites. There are beautiful gardens which attract the most gorgeous butterflies, and a 300 year old Osage Orange Tree that is 65’ tall and 90’ across that was there when Patrick Henry lived there.
We also walked a path to the sorting field and old tobacco barn where a very huge and very angry mother buzzard would not let us into the barn as she had claimed it as the place to raise her young. There are lots of buzzards flying overhead in this part of the country. They are very ugly and very large.