1. Patrick Henry
Read his biography on page 99.

2. Speech to the Virginia Convention
Read the speech as we listen to it.
Look for how Henry is trying to persuade his audience:
What is he appealing to – ethos, pathos, logos
What techniques is he using?

3. Techniques Repetition, Parallelism Rhetorical Questioning
Comparisons – Metaphors, Similes, Analogies

4. Repetition
Tried to petition the British for better treatment: “ten years”(101 – 102)
“We must fight!” (102)
War: “Let it come!” (103)
Slavery
Light
Tyranny

5. Parallelism
“We have petitioned; we have remonstrated, we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves…” (102)
“Our petitions…our remonstrances…our supplications” (102)
“the vigilant, the active, the brave…” (103)
“give me liberty or give me death”(103)

6. Comparisons
Seeing Clearly: “Lamp of Experience” (101), “Lights”(101 – 102)
Description of Great Britain: “tyranny”, “tyrannical”, “insidious”
Imagery of Slavery: “those chains”, “bound us hand and foot”, “submission and slavery”, “chains and slavery”

7. Rhetorical Questioning
“What means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission?”(102)
“Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction?” (102)
“Why stand we here idle?”(103)
“What is it that gentlemen wish?”(103)

8. Concessions
Concession: admitting or acknowledging the other side as having a true, just, or proper argument

9. Refutations
Refutation: Denial of the truth/accuracy of the other side. Concession + “But,” “However,” “Although”…

10. Refutations
Opponents argue that British have innocent motives for building up their military.
Henry argues that they do not have any enemies in this part of the world other than the colonies “Has Great Britain any enemy in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No sir, she has none” (102).

11. Refutations
Opponents argue that they should try to negotiate with the British
Henry argues that they already have and that all of the petitions have been spurned by the British. “We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne…” (102).

12. ETHOS = ETHICS
Use of “…we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God…” (103).

13. Images of slavery, mistreatment
PATHOS = EMOTION
Images of slavery, mistreatment

14. LOGOS = LOGIC
Refutations: Armies of Great Britain formed against the colonies, petitions denied

15. Credits
Patrick Henry picture comes from