Patrick Henry
• Patrick Henry represented Virginia in the First
Continental Congress
• March, 1775, he was strongly urging his fellow
Virginians to arm themselves in self-defense
against the British troops.
• He was not just a patriot and a lawyer, but also an
orator (a person who speaks well in public.)
• Credited with rallying the colonists by his speech
we know as "give me liberty or give me death".
Ben Franklin
• Representative sent abroad by the Congress of
the thirteen states in the early part of the
Revolutionary war
• to secure aid of various kinds from certain
friendly nations
• no one has equaled Benjamin Franklin in ability,
tact, common sense, diplomacy, and reputation
that was national as well as world wide.
Thomas Jefferson
• During the American Revolution, Jefferson was
elected governor of Virginia
• Considered one of the Founding Fathers of the
United States of America
• Talented writer
• Central role in drafting the Declaration of
Independence.
Thomas Paine
• In Common Sense, Thomas Paine argues for American
independence. His argument reflects on government and religion,
then talks about specifics of the colonial situation.
•
Discusses government and society.
• Society is people joined together for the purpose of good .
• Government is an institution whose sole purpose is to protect us
from our own vices.
• Government has its origins in the evil of man and is a necessary evil.
• government's sole purpose is to protect life, liberty and property,
and that a government should be judged solely on the basis of the
extent to which it accomplishes this goal.