Richmond and Patrick Henry

Richmond has not always been the capital of Virginia. The first capital was Williamsburg; it was in 1779 when Richmond became the capital of Virginia. Not far from the Library of Virginia is Capitol Square. This area contains the Governor’s resident, the state government building, a public park, and several statues. Most prominent is the George Washington statue. Surrounding Washington are six Virginians - Andrew Lewis, representing Colonial Times, Patrick Henry, representing Revolutionary times, George Mason, representing the Library Bill of Rights, Thomas Jefferson, representing Independence, Thomas Nelson, representing finance and John Marshall representing Justice.

The figure that caught Flat Stanley's interest was
Patrick Henry.

On March 1775, a little over 100 delegates from Virginia gathered at the Henrico Parish Church or St. John's Church to organize their protests against the British Government. They decided to meet at the church, because it was the only building big enough in Richmond to fit them all. They decided to meet in Richmond, because they knew the Governor of Virgina would not be pleased to know they were meeting. In the audience were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Richard Henry Lee and Peyton Randolph. On March 23, Patrick Henry gave his famous speech "Give me liberty or give me death." Flat Stanley by chance visited the St. John's Church on the same day that a reenactment was taking place for a school group.

After the visit to St. John's Church, Flat Stanley read the book "Where was Patrick Henry on the 29th of May" by Jean Fritz. There he learned that Patrick Henry was once the Governor of Virginia. This is an important fact, because one of the tasks of the Library of Virginia is to preserve the history of Virginia.


In the upper level of the Library of Virginia is a room to look at rare documents. One of the books Flat Stanley saw was a Latin dictionary once owned by Patrick Henry.