What was the purpose of Patrick Henrys speech

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Questions About Main Idea
Chew on This

The most famous line is the last one: "Give me liberty or give me death!" (75). But why does Patrick Henry feel he's come to that point? (If you ask us, we'd rather have life and liberty. It's the best of both worlds, you know?)
Henry's main point, though, is that if the colonies want liberty from Great Britain, they're going to have to fight for it. They've tried and failed at every other means of gaining liberty, and British boots are on the ground. At this point, the only way out is through…which means Henry and his buddies could die fighting.
Oh, and if they survive a war but don't win it, they'll probably be executed as traitors. Yeesh.
Questions About Main Idea
1. Patrick Henry talks about liberty, freedom, and slavery a lot in this speech. How do you think he would define each of those terms?
2. If you were at the Second Virginia Convention and you were opposed to Henry's position, how would you refute his arguments?
3. How strong is Henry's argument that armed conflict is the only way? Explain.
4. On a scale of 1-10, with George Washington as a 10 (obviously), how would you rate Patrick Henry as a Founding Father, and why?
Chew on This
Patrick Henry makes a compelling, logical argument for why the colonists must go to war.

Patrick Henry's argument for war is based in appeals to emotion and pride.

On March 23rd, 1775, at the Second Virginia Convention at St. John's Church in Richmond, Patrick Henry argued that a volunteer militia should be organized and armed in every county of Virginia to prepare to defend themselves from Great Britain.
Yeah; Henry wasn't big on tiptoeing around issues.

The Text
Henry opens with an acknowledgement of the men who disagree with him. He says he has mad respect for them, but that they're still wrong. The American colonies are facing some big challenges and if he didn't speak his mind, he'd feel like he was in the wrong.

Now we get into Henry's main point. Hoping for peace is great. Working for peace is great. Trying every diplomatic channel there is to achieve peace is great. However, the colonies have been trying all that for ten years, and it hasn't worked. Fighting for peace is the only way we're going to get it.
Sure, Henry says, the odds are against us. But the odds aren't going to get better if we sit around waiting. In fact, they're going to get worse.
Anyhow, we don't have a choice. If we want liberty, we're going to have to fight for it, and if we fight, we might die. But life without liberty is no way to live, so... give me liberty or give me death.
TL;DR
Patrick Henry lays out the hard truth: Great Britain isn't going to hand out liberty and respect until they have to. The colonists need to be willing to fight and die for it.

1. How does the fact that this speech was compiled from memories of listeners over thirty years after the fact affect how we read it? Does it matter that it's not the exact speech Patrick Henry gave?
2. What's up with Patrick Henry's references to slavery? How might his original listeners have responded differently to the use of that term than we do today?
3. If this were a political speech given today, where would the "clap breaks" be—you know, the spots where the speaker has to stop so everyone can clap?
4. How does Henry pile on the evidence for the threat from Great Britain? What are his main arguments for war?
5. Given the realities of the time, was it a good idea for Henry to encourage Virginians to create militias to pick a fight with Great Britain?
6. How do you think the average Virginian would have reacted to Henry's ideas about forming militias to fight British regular soldiers?
7. This is a classically structured speech by a classically educated orator, and yet it somehow gained Henry a reputation for representing the concerns of the common man. How do you think that happened?
8. How does this speech fit in with the other events of 1775, including the Battles of Lexington and Concord? Is it significant that the first shots of the war were fired only a month after Henry's speech? Are the two events related at all?

Patrick Henry delivered his “Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death” speech with the purpose of freeing Virginia from British colonial rule. Delivered in 1775, Patrick Henry’s speech has since been recognized as one of the most pivotal speeches in world history.

The speech took place at a church in Virginia on March 23, 1775, according to both Totally History and Yale Law School. It served as a response to Britain’s actions toward colonies in the American isles. Patrick Henry viewed the influence of the British as a threat to the freedom of the American people and rejected all the claims the British made to justify their reasons for colonizing the Americas. As a patriot, Patrick Henry believed that the British empire was leeching from his country and that American citizens were given no choice but to accept their role as being subordinate to the domineering British colonial rule.

The purpose of the speech was to mobilize the residents of Virginia into taking action against the British rule and to convince the state of Virginia that they could never achieve peace in any circumstances. The speech inspired many people to take sides with Patrick Henry’s political ideologies and ushered in a wave of patriotism that influenced the course of American history.

Near the end of British control, the American colonists got angry about what was happening in their country and start to spread the idea of self-rule. In 1775, Patrick Henry gave the “Speech in the Virginia Convention” to persuade the representatives to prepare for the impending war with the British and fight for independence. One reason Patrick Henry wants to persuade them into to following him is to prepare for war. He wishes to convince them to prepare for the incoming “storm” which they have been doing “everything that could be done” to avoid the “storm”. He is trying to convince the delegates that the option of war is impossible to hold off any longer and will not wait for the colonists to be ready. Henry is trying to scare the delegates into believing what he believes. To the people who want to hold off preparing for something that might not happen, he asks them when they “shall gather” enough “strength” to fight against the British. Henry is trying to push the delegates by asking when it will be time for action, now or when the British are going to force them into the worst situation later in the future. “Gentlemen may cry” for “Peace, Peace, but” it is too late to beg for peace or come to a solution without violence. Patrick Henry is stressing that it is now time for action and that they have to fight for peace. Patrick Henry’s beliefs mostly influence his next purpose of independence. He wants to spread the idea of being independent and out of the control of the British. At the beginning…show more content…
He believes that being a part of Britain is holding America back from going forward to the future, so he stresses the importance of fighting for what they believe in, which is to lead themselves. He wants to be known as the man who helps his country on the right path and a year later, he does just that, where the beliefs in self-government lead them to the now self-ruled United States of

Throughout his speech, he uses a serious and straightforward tone and shows a strong determination to start a war against Britain. The most powerful and the most influential speech “Give me liberty or give me death” by Patrick Henry uses different strategies to convince and persuade his audience not only using ethos, pathos, logos, but also many others develop throughout the speech, these strategies helped henry’s speech become more influential and sway the mind of men more quickly.

To begin with, Patrick Henry starts with draw attention to the patriotic towards Britain, but he has a different view on how to solve the conflict. He attempts to shows different viewpoints but does not immediately discredit the view of the audience. “But different men often see the same subject in different light” meaning everyone have their own way of thinking or have different opinion and people should respect each other’s, the word light represent truth, hope and spiritual illumination. Henry uses a brilliant strategy at the beginning of the speech. It is important that he convince the people who currently disagree with him and by acknowledging their patriotism