Patrick Henry

Patrick Henry makes it very clear what he wants in throughout this passage. He basically says give me what I want or I would rather die without it. It is said in his famous quote "Give me liberty, or give me death." It makes him sound like kind of a brat and has his mind set that he is right and that is all he wants but I understand where he is coming from. Since my parents tell me what to do still even though I want my freedom I can relate to why Henry and other Americans would like their freedom as well. Although, their situation is to the extreme compared to mine. Patrick is living in America and for some reason Britain still thinks that they have total control over this new country because the people there originated from Britain. Britain is taxing the colonies and making them pay for things that are taking place in Britain even though the colonists do not live there and have nothing to do with that country. All the colonists want to do is to trade with Britain and get goods in return. They really don't want anymore involvement than just that. Patrick Henry does not believe Britain should have any control over the people in the colonies, and I agree with his idea. The British were causing many of the colonists to become very poor, they were taxing them as if they were people still living in Britain. Patrick Henry gives many examples on how he feels and how the British are treating the colonists. He used rationalism to get his point across so nobody would doubt him. Henry used facts so it would be hard to deny him. An example would be, "Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we posses, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us." (Henry 118.) He believed the only way to achieve his idea was to fight and he made it clear there were three million people ready to show the British who is boss. He also stated this "We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne." (Henry 118) This quote from the passage also tells how the colonists have tried everything and need to go to war. He used rationalism and really proved that they have tried a lot but there was nothing else that could be done except to fight. They used words to really try to get their point across to Britain but, obviously, that did not work. Patrick Henry firmly believed that he had the perfect way to get the colonists what they wanted and he would not back down. Fighting would have to happen.

Henry, Patrick. "Speech to the Second Virginia Convention" Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 116-118. Print.