Study the American Revolution and you might miss the name Robert Carter Nicholas; study Robert Carter Nicholas and you will see the entire revolution. This is the first biography of the Virginia patriot who served in the House of Burgesses and has gone down in history as an opponent of Patrick Henry—though the reality is more complicated.

In reconstructing Nicholas's life, Brent Tarter recovers late colonial Virginian society in all of its complexity, showing how men and women of the upper classes lived; how they depended on slavery for their wealth and social status; how they were surrounded by enslaved people almost all of the time; how they brought up and educated their children; how the complex international tobacco economy operated; and how the institutions of government functioned.

The life of Robert Carter Nicholas illustrates like few others how a decade of profoundly important challenges and changes culminated in the decision of elite leaders—who at first glance appear to have had nothing to gain and much to lose by risking a revolution—to vote for independence from Great Britain in 1776.