Red Hill Rediscovered: Home for a “Most Noble Patriot” – Patrick Henry’s Life at Scotchtown

Join Elyse Werling, curator of collections for Preservation Virginia, as she discusses the lives, triumphs, and tragedies that filled the halls of Patrick Henry’s largest home, Scotchtown, in Hanover County. This virtual talk will be streamed LIVE on Red Hill’s social media pages.

 

 

Patrick and Sarah Henry, their five (soon to be six) children, and the more than a dozen people they enslaved moved to a 1,000-acre plantation called Scotchtown in 1771. The colonies were ever closer to rebellion, and Virginia was a powder keg of tension. Patrick Henry was an outspoken leader of the revolutionary cause, yet every public action he took impacted and was shaped by his private life at Scotchtown. Today, Scotchtown is owned by Preservation Virginia and is a museum open to the public. Join us to learn about the historic property today and how these formative years at Scotchtown drastically impacted the lives of the Henry family and the enslaved servants whose forced labor provided for their comfort and lifestyle.

 

 

Elyse Werling is the curator of collections at Preservation Virginia. She holds an MA in History and Museum Studies from Tufts University and a BA in History and Anthropology from Indiana University. She is an alumna of the Victorian Society of America’s London Summer School and the Attingham Summer School. Her research has been published in Antiques and the Arts Weekly, Historic New England Magazine, and White House History Quarterly. Prior to moving to Richmond, she worked at the White House Historical Association, George Washington’s Mount Vernon, and Historic New England, where she opened the Eustis Estate Museum & Study Center.