page_title: Benjamin Harrison V
hierarchical_section_title: Benjamin Harrison V
caption_attribution_description: English: Benjamin Harrison V (1726–1791)
context_page_description: Benjamin Harrison V was an American planter, merchant, and legislator in colonial Virginia. He was a Founding Father of the United States and also served as Virginia's governor.
  Harrison served an aggregate of three decades in the Virginia House of Burgesses, representing Surry County and Charles City County. He was among the early patriots to formally protest tyrannical measures imposed by King George and his Parliament upon the American colonies leading to the American Revolution. This was a stark contrast to Harrison's personal acceptance and practice of slaveholding, though he joined a 1772 petition delivered to the King in vain, requesting that he abolish the slave trade.
  As a Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress, and Chairman of its Committee of the Whole, Harrison attended and presided over the final debate of the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration included the foundational philosophy of the United States: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Harrison was one of its signers in 1776.
context_section_description: Benjamin Harrison V (April 5, 1726 – April 24, 1791) was an American planter, merchant, and legislator in colonial Virginia. He was a Founding Father of the United States and also served as Virginia's governor (1781–1784).
  Harrison served an aggregate of three decades in the Virginia House of Burgesses, representing Surry County and Charles City County. He was among the early patriots to formally protest tyrannical measures imposed by King George and his Parliament upon the American colonies leading to the American Revolution. This was a stark contrast to Harrison's personal acceptance and practice of slaveholding, though he joined a 1772 petition delivered to the King in vain, requesting that he abolish the slave trade.
  As a Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress, and Chairman of its Committee of the Whole, Harrison attended and presided over the final debate of the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration included the foundational philosophy of the United States: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Harrison was one of its signers in 1776. 
  Harrison was elected as Virginia's fifth governor; his administration was marked by its futile struggle with a state treasury decimated by the revolutionary war. He later returned to the Virginia House for two final terms. In a rare disagreement with ally George Washington, Harrison in 1788 cast one of his last votes in opposition to the nation's Constitution, for its lack of a bill of rights. 
  Benjamin V was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia. Two of his descendants became United States Presidents—son William Henry Harrison and great-grandson Benjamin Harrison.
caption: Miniature portrait
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