'Give me liberty, or give me death!' is a quotation attributed to Patrick Henry, from his speech to the Second Virginia Convention on 23 March, 1775, at St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia. Henry spoke without notes, and no transcript of his exact words have survived. The only known version of his speech was reconstructed in the early 1800s by William Wirt, a biographer who corresponded with various attendees of the convention.