The statement in a recent post about an upcoming documentary ( "One of
Patrick Henry's slaves took to heart Henry's cry of "Give me liberty, or
give me death" - and fled." ) arosed my curiosity inasmuch as we have no
information to support it. So, if it were true, I was curious to know
details and sources - the usual stuff any historian wants.
  With that in mind, I forwarded the statement and my curiosity to a few
people who are quite a bit more knowledgable about Patrick Henry than I.
The answer I got may interest others on VA-HIST (and ought to interest
the producers of the upcoming program):

"There was a Patrick Henry in Glouchester County {not the famous orator}
who had a slave run away to the British. Even the research staff at
Colonial Williamsburg have mistakenly thought this Henry was our Henry
and have unfortunately printed info saying Patrick Henry's slave had run
away. Perhaps this is what the woman is referring to....."


Dr. Jon Kukla, Executive Vice-President
Red Hill - The Patrick Henry National Memorial
1250 Red Hill Road
Brookneal, Virginia 24528
www.redhill.org

PS: I retain SOME of the original post below, but deleted extraneous text
in the spirit of this list's recent discussion of shire-reeves etc ...

>
> I thought the members of this list might be interested in a 2-hour History
> Channel documentary that will air on Thurs., May 26th, 8 - 10:00 p.m.  As
> a member of the production team for the 14-hour Eyes on the Prize PBS
> series, the attention to scholarship and content that I learned at
> Blackside, I've tried to carry over as producer of this documentary.
>
> Slave Catchers, Slave Resisters is a two-hour History Channel documentary
> that depicts the system of slave policing -- enforced by militia, armed
> community slave patrols, paid slave catchers, and federal law.  Produced
> by Northern Light Productions of Boston, it will premiere on the History
> Channel on Thursday, May 26th, 8:00 - 10:00 pm.
>
> The stories are set in both the South and the North, from the mid-1700's
> colonial era through the end of the Civil War and its aftermath, and told
> through archival material, scholar interviews and recreations.
>
. . . as we make clear, the main problem for slave owners was not
> rebellion, but runaways.  Historian Loren Schweninger notes, "A minimum
> number of slaves per year that ran away was 50,000 and probably many
> more...  It was almost routine."  Most ran simply to be reunited with
> family members who'd been sold away.
> During the Revolutionary War, Thomas Jefferson noted that thousands of
> slaves fled Virginia plantations alone, including some from Jefferson's
> own plantation. One of Patrick Henry's slaves took to heart Henry's cry of
> "Give me liberty, or give me death" - and fled.  . . . .

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