On January 18, 1773, Patrick Henry sat at his desk at Scotchtown writing to Robert Pleasants, a Quaker and abolitionist, lamenting slavery and declaring, "Would any one believe that I am Master of Slaves of my own purchase! I am drawn along by ye. general inconvenience of living without them, I will not, I cannot justify it." Yet at Scotchtown, Dinah prepared food, Beck tended the garden, and Isaac, James, Jenny, Pedro, and Will labored outside in the January cold as people enslaved by Henry. His legal success allowed his family to live comfortably in the manor house, but that comfort depended on the forced labor of the people he enslaved on the plantation. Known across the colonies for challenging British tyranny and championing colonists' rights, Henry did not extend those rights to all residents of Scotchtown, deliberately excluding enslaved people and even his wife and daughters. A 1768 Louisa County tithables list shows that before moving to Scotchtown he was taxed on enslaved people named Ben, Pedro, Dick, Isaac, Ben, Dinah, Beck, Jenny, James, and Will or Hill, and most if not all of them continued to be enslaved by him there. While living at Scotchtown, Henry also delivered his famous 1775 words, "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?"