Sarah Shelton Henry

Sarah Shelton Henry was Patrick Henry’s first wife and the mother of six of his children; severe mental illness led to her confinement at the family home. The surviving record places this person within the historical events represented in Ann Rinaldi’s fiction.

Historical fiction may reconstruct private conversations, motives and emotional responses that sources do not preserve. The relationship is included because the person is portrayed under a real historical identity, while invented details should not be treated as documentary biography.