Jefferson had found Henry a bit backwoodsy. “His manners had something of the coarseness of the society he had frequented: his passion was fiddling, dancing & pleasantry. He excelled in the last,” Jefferson wrote.12 This observation was not just Jefferson being a haughty young colonial gentleman. Henry was notorious in the Hanover area as an idler, more fond of hunting, fishing, and dancing than of work. Jefferson was more impressed by Henry’s public speaking. He wrote later that he “heard the splendid display of mr Henry’s talents as a popular orator. They were great indeed; such as I have
...more
