Rhetorical Techniques Used In Patrick Henry's Speech

Henry knows that the United States citizens are scared of the British troops and puts the freedom of the U.S on the line as a technique to prove that now is the perfect and best time to fight back. Another example of a rhetorical strategy is when Henry says “For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery: and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate.” Citizens are aware of the horrid and unfair treatment of slaves. Henry uses slavery to make citizens think that the more they let the British gain

¨Patrick Henry Speech¨ : Rhetorical Use In his speech to the Virginia Congress, Patrick Henry uses rhetorical devices such as an extended metaphor and hyperbole to contribute to his purpose of coercing the other delegates to accept the upcoming conflict with Britain. In his address to the Virginia Congress, Henry establishes the urgency of preparing for the inevitable war with the British. In his speech, Henry uses a ‘storm’ to symbolize the conflict that is on the horizon.

As an colonist/American, Thomas Paine knows that the upcoming war will be inevitable, therefore he tries his best to persuade the other colonists to fight by logically appealing to their senses. “America did not, nor does not want force; but she wanted a proper application of that force.” (Crisis No. 1). Thomas Paine is trying to stress that America, through ways of diplomacy does not want any harm towards her/the colonists but the British will persist and in a matter of time, ready or not, America will be forced to fight. Due to there being an upcoming war, the colonists were still split on Summer time soldiers and sunny patriots, both will only fight when it's a good “weathered” situation.

One of the earliest well-known opponents of Great Britain was Patrick Henry. Throughout his life he gave many speeches supporting the American Government, ultimately making a name for himself. During a time of uncertainty for the colonists in 1775, Henry still supported his opinions on American Democracy. In his opinion, the only choice left was to go to war with Great Britain. In order to gain the colonist's approval, he issued a marvelous speech persuading the colonists to go to war.

It was not until Patrick Henry, an orator and lawyer from Virginia, convinced them to do otherwise in his Speech at the Virginia Convention. Since this during the Age of Reason, logic was commonly used and helped persuade the masses by using rational thinking and deductive reasoning. Patrick Henry used logos to win over the colonists and change their overall opinions on the British.

Colonial America is facing struggles from within and from the British, but are still trying to maintain neutrality. However, Patrick Henry believes in otherwise and being fed up with British actions against the colonies, expresses his thoughts in his “Speech in the Virginia Convention.” Henry is biased since he is an American and sees the British as the enemy, but this is also in a time where tensions between colonial America and Britain are rising as the colonists revolt. Patrick Henry utilizes rhetorical strategies such as rhetorical questions, antithesis, and parallelism to bring forth claims that they must go to war against Britain since all the possible ways to try to prevent war have been exhausted and ineffective.

He forces the audience to accept what he is saying as the truth. “We must fight!” a short exclamatory sentence which creates a sense of urgency into the audience. As the speech reaches its climax, and the excitement and energy that Henry has placed into the audience, they are now convinced and ready to charge into battle against the British. Patrick Henry’s “Speech to the Virginia Convention” was a call to arms to the colonist against the British during the 1700’s.

Document E is a part of the Continental Congress in 1775 that discusses how Americans needed to bear arms. It states that Americans deserve to protect their liberty and fight against their enemies fairly. The colonists felt as if they would rather “die freemen, rather than live [like] slaves.” This article states that there is still possibility for peace among Britain and the colonies, but if they do not want peace, than the colonists will want to bear arms, and fight together for freedom, rather than live under British

In Patrick Henry’s “Speech in the Virginia Convention,” Henry uses persuasive techniques such as repetition and rhetorical questions to interrogate the motives of the British and to reason why the colonies should declare their independence despite the consequences. In Henry’s speech, he uses repetition to address that war is inevitable to show how they must fight in order to achieve their goals as a nation and to prove that the colonists will not be alone over the course of the battle. In Henry’s speech he includes, “The war is inevitable—and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come!” By this quote, Henry is saying that the colonists have already gone so far and worked so hard to give up now.

“We must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight!” (Henry 103). This speech by Patrick Henry was delivered before the Revolutionary War in an effort to persuade the colonists to go to war immediately against Britain. Patrick Henry’s “Speech to the Virginia Convention” used logos as the most effective persuasive technique because it appealed to the reasoning of the colonists and questioned the British intentions.

He gives credit to their power as coming only from God and give the credit of raising up allies. Henry argues that the country should fight. In order to support his argument, he uses an appeal of vanity to point out he wants peace. Leading to this, Henry talks about working together and fight. Henry reveals his idea when he states, “ Peace, Peace”.

Dumping 342 containers of tea into the Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773 was just the beginning of the rebellion against paying taxes to Great Britain. As the author and orator of the “Speech to the Second Virginia Convention,” Patrick Henry fights against being “slaves” to Great Britain. Henry utilizes rhetorical strategies such as, ethos, logos, and pathos to persuade Virginia to start the American Revolution. To show the audience that he has credibility, Patrick Henry starts his speech with, ”No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House” (Henry 1). He tells the audience that he has incredible patriotism for the colonies and that there are worthy gentlemen that have the ability to fight for our country.

After the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord, many people were indecisive about which side to support in the Revolutionary war. Delegates from the colonies came together to decide whether to break away from Great Britain or reconcile with them. The thirteen colonies were split into three groups, patriots, who supported breaking away from the English crown, loyalists, who supported the king, and undecided people. At the delegation people would give speeches advocating for both sides of the conflict, one of these people was Patrick Henry. Patrick Henry uses pathos, his audience's sense of patriotism, and ethos, calling Britain and its king a tyrant, in his speech to arouse support for the efforts of the patriots in breaking away from Great Britain.

In times of oppression, mankind has always been known to stand up and fight for a good cause, and the American Revolution was no exception. Held down by the wickedness of the British Empire for some time, America had finally had enough. One voice that stood out in the colonies was that of Patrick Henry. He was an elective of the House of Burgesses and delivered many speeches on the need for revolution. One of his most famous speeches is the “Speech in the Virginia Convention.”

In 1775, Patrick Henry proposed his Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death speech at the Virginia Convention to persuade America to go to war with Britain. America tried different ways of approaching the situation, but Britain wouldn’t give in. Henry was tired of America being Britain’s slave and wanted independence now. In his speech, he used many literary devices such as rhetorical questions, repetition, and parallelism to convince the colonists to fight for freedom.