Living history: Patrick Henry coming to Amherst County

By Susan Pugh

Published: August 13, 2008

Editor’s note: A theatrical background that began in New York led Richard Schumann, 50, to Colonial Williamsburg and his perpetual role portraying Patrick Henry. As such, Schumann has performed on television, in movies, on pod casts, and has been featured in newspapers, magazines and on radio. When not so engaged, the self-described Air Force brat, who graduated from Rutgers University, can be found around Colonial Williamsburg, doing his job of bringing Patrick Henry to life.

When “Patrick Henry” comes to Amherst next month, it will be a homecoming of sorts.

The founding father (as channeled by Richard Schumann, who portrays Henry at Colonial Williamsburg) will speak in character to citizens — and the Amherst County Museum and Historical Society — at Winton, the home of his mother Sarah Winston Syme Henry.

if you’re going ...
WHAT: “Patrick Henry” at the annual meeting of the Amherst County Museum and Historical Society
WHERE: Winton Country Club
WHEN: 11:30 a.m. Sept. 13
TICKETS: $15, $10 for those 55 and older. Lunch, $12.
INFO: The event is open to the public. The reservation deadline is Sept. 5. Contact the museum at (434) 946-9068 or e-mail .

During an interview earlier this week, “Henry” said he never lived at Winton in Clifford. The visit will bring him in proximity, however, to the site “where my dear mother is buried.”

The orator, whose words “give me liberty or give me death” helped give the once-and-future country the will to throw off the shackles of government without representation, has some thoughts he hopes to impart.

“Chief among them is the importance of our citizens’ understanding of their obligations as citizens,” Henry said.

Such an understanding is fundamental, in his view, given that they are the people referenced in the underlying concept of what he terms “this brave, new experiment:” a government “for and by the people.”
His will also speak while in the county to schoolchildren — young citizens and future leaders.

Of his upcoming visit to a region inhabited by people of “a fierce and independent spirit,” Henry said, “I am very much looking forward to it.”

But could Henry look forward to such a journey itself? For the Hanover County native, who became the Commonwealth’s first governor, getting to Amherst would mean traveling from Williamsburg, the site of Virginia’s first state capital.

“Good time” in horse-powered travel can be figured at about 4 mph, which means such a journey could take roughly 10 days. Fortunately, in the late 18th century, travelers could count on finding a tavern about every 30 miles or so along the route at which to rest and revive.

Henry said his experience as governor meant having to write copious letters, and having to worry about the safety and security of the new government. As such, the job would leave little time for favorite pastimes: hunting and fishing.

And little time at home, where the death of his wife Sarah Shelton left him with six children. (Henry must have been undaunted by fatherhood; he would go on to marry Dorothea Dandridge and father 11 more.)

Although governor, Henry said he would expect no royal treatment upon his arrival. “In truth, I am a somewhat plain person.”

Plain, maybe, but a lawyer, certainly, and a man with a claim to education. While that education was at home, it was thanks to his father, a classically educated Scotsman.

The home the adult Henry built, “Red Hill” in Charlotte County, is a simple white frame farmhouse. It still stands, in contrast to Monticello or Mount Vernon — evidence of Henry’s vision of himself and role in his new country as a man of the people.