Patrick Henry
by James A. Bacon
The State Board for Community Colleges has told Patrick Henry Community College (PHCC) to change its name. The issue: Henry owned slaves.
Best known for his oratory — “Give me liberty, or give me death!” — Henry served as the first and sixth post-colonial governor of Virginia. A stalwart defender of individual liberties, he was a major advocate of the Bill of Rights. He believed slavery was wrong and hoped for its abolition, although he continued to own slaves himself. “I am the master of slaves of my own purchase,” he wrote in 1773. “I am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living here without them. I will not, I cannot justify it.”
The Patrick Henry Community College Foundation board has resisted the name change on numerous grounds. It has estimated the cost at more than $1 million, and has pledged to dedicate an equal sum to fund a “diversity and equity program.” The name change would have a “reputation cost,” the PHCC Foundation has said, and enrollment could suffer. Furthermore, the board says, there is minimal support in the community for changing the name.
As a compromise the PHCC has proposed adding a hyphen — Patrick-Henry Community College — to reflect the the fact that the college serves both Patrick County and Henry County (both of which were named after Patrick Henry).
Bacon’s bottom line: Virginia has gone way past taking down statues of Civil War generals. The Northam administration’s attack on Patrick Henry represents an escalation in the campaign to de-legitimize and de-memorialize the founding fathers. The state Community College board had earlier targeted lesser known figures of the colonial and Revolutionary eras such as Thomas Nelson, John Tyler and Lord Fairfax.
Like the other founding fathers, Henry did not live up to modern ideals, or even his own, in every way. But he is nationally, indeed internationally, celebrated for advancing the cause of liberty. De-memorializing him is a travesty.
Once Henry topples, there is no logical demarcation to prevent our modern-day iconoclasts from toppling the other dominoes. George Mason, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and even George Washington. Of all of our traditional heroes, who will remain? This is madness. Virginia has succumbed to rule by a secular Taliban, and Governor Ralph Northam is our very own Mullah Omar.
