Place yourself in pre-Revolutionary
America. Blood and suffering
resulted from Henry’s famous
impassioned cry “Give me liberty,
or give me death!” yet his words
generate pride to this day.
Write a paragraph about what
liberty means to you.
 Born May 29, 1736 in Hanover County,
Virginia
 Protested British tyranny
 Symbol of American struggle for liberty
 Served in the Virginia House of
Burgesses and the Continental Congress
 Five-term governor of Virginia
 Delivered the famous "Give me liberty or
give me death!" speech.
From Speech to the Second Virginia
Convention
Would you be willing to risk your life to preserve your freedoms?
1.
2.
Why is Patrick Henry a symbol of
the American struggle for liberty?
What rhetorical techniques does
Patrick Henry utilize in his “Speech
to the Virginia Convention” to
convince his audience to declare
war?
 Speeches
are written works that are
delivered orally.
 Effective speeches include
Rhetorical devices: techniques the speaker/writer
uses as a means of persuasion.
Restatement – repeating an idea in a variety of
ways
Repetition – repeating an idea using the same
words
Parallelism – repeating grammatical structures
Rhetorical questions – asking a question whose
answer is self-evident

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Diction is the choice and
arrangement of words
Denotation is the dictionary
definition of the word.
Connotation is the set of
associations implied by a word in
addition to its literal meaning.
Allusion: reference to famous
person, event, or idea
The Shorthand Version:
 Ethos: the source's credibility or
authority
 Logos: the logic used to support a
claim; can also be the facts and
statistics used to help support the
argument.
 Pathos: the emotional or
motivational appeals; vivid
language, emotional language and
numerous sensory details.

Determine his call to action.
He is calling on the patriots of Virginia to
arm themselves in order to be prepared to
fight the British if they do not yield to some
of their demands
 Who is his audience? The members of the
Virginia Convention
 What is the occasion of the speech? The
meeting of the Convention


Determine Patrick Henry’s tone in this
speech. Urgent, pleading, inflammatory
With
a partner, complete
the handout.
These questions will be the
basis for our class
discussion.
Participation is required!
Discussion Questions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
In the beginning of his speech,
how does Patrick Henry
immediately establish ethos?
He states, “This is no time for
ceremony” (147). How does this
line establish the overall tone?
Defend your opinion of
whether or not Henry commits a
logical fallacy when he states
“For my own part, I consider it
as nothing less than a question of
freedom or slavery” (148).
Henry illustrates his points with
allusions to mythology and the
Bible. Locate and explain two
allusions he uses on page 148.
“I have but one lamp by which
my feet are guided; and that is
the lamp of experience” (148).
Explain how this is an example
of ethos.
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6.
How does Henry establish logos
with his reference to the presence of
the British army in the colonies?
7.
Connotation: Rather than calling
military action “war,” Henry calls it a
“struggle for liberty.” What is the
effect of Henry utilizing connotative
language in his speech?
8.
According to Patrick Henry,
what have the colonists done to
maintain good ties with the British?
9.
Henry urges the colonists to
fight. How does he appeal to his
audience on an emotional level, or
pathos?
10. Explain what Henry implies with
the five rhetorical questions he asks his
audience.
11. Consider the following statement:
“Sir, we are not weak, if we make a
proper use of the means which the
God of nature hath placed in our
power” (149). What means is Henry
referring to?