"Give me liberty, or give me death!" It is one of the most iconic quotes in American history, credited with swinging the vote for independence. But did Patrick Henry actually deliver those famous words, or is the version we know a fabrication?

In this episode of pplpod, we transport you to March 23, 1775, inside St. John's Church in Richmond for the Second Virginia Convention. We explore how Henry’s fiery oratory urged the Founding Fathers—including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson—to raise a militia and prepare for the Revolutionary War.

However, the history is more complex than it seems. We dig into the controversy surrounding biographer William Wirt, who reconstructed the speech from the memories of elderly w ...