TOW #11 - 'Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death' by Patrick Henry

            Towards the beginning of the American Revolution some colonists tried to redact the rebellion that was already underway. They did this by sending King Henry III the Olive Branch Petition, the petition was basically a small group of the colonists trying to get back in the King’s good graces. However, the King felt that it was too late for the colonists to redeem themselves and he claimed they were already in rebellion. Even though King Henry claimed this many colonists still felt that there was hope to stop a war with Britain from occurring. Patrick Henry, a lawyer and political, was not one of these colonists. He believed that war with Britain was just around the corner and that there was nothing the colonists could do to stop it. To address his beliefs, he gave a speech at the 2^nd Virginia Convention. This speech was called ‘Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death’.

            Originally most colonists still believed that there was a chance that Britain would forgive them for boycotting and having small rebellions. Due to their beliefs Henry first used facts to try and get the colonists to change their minds. He reminded them that Britain had not been responding very positively to their apologies and that they had already considered the colonist to be enemies and against Britain. He knew that none of them could refute known facts. Henry also used hypotheras to force his audience rethink their viewpoint on the argument.  He wanted them to see how flawed their opinion was. After Henry addressed the other colonists’ views he mentioned his own. He talked about how the Virginia colonists needed to start gathering arms, mentioning that Britain would be treating them like traitors and would not take mercy on them for not having weapons to defend themselves.

            Patrick Henry spoke directly to the President of the Virginia Convention, Peyton Randolph. Numerous times during his speech he address Randolph head on as ‘Mr. President’. Henry knew that in order to get all the other colonists on his side he needed to get the ‘leader’ of them all first. Once he got Randolph to agree with him all the other colonists would follow. Even though he directly told his views to Randolph his speech was also aimed towards every other Virginia colonist in attendance.