Source, in full
The speech was not published until The Port Folio printed a version of it in 1816. The version of the speech that is known today first appeared in print in Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry, a biography of Henry by William Wirt in 1817. Eyewitness accounts of John Roane, St. George Tucker, and John Tyler Sr. confirm the authenticity of these words as being spoken by Henry. See David McCants, "The Authenticity of William Wirt's Version of Patrick Henry's 'Liberty or Death' Speech," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 87 (1979), pp. 387-402.