“Give Me Liberty, Or Give Me Death” by Patrick Henry, presented at the Virginia Convention on March 20th, 1775. This speech is famous for persuading the President of the United States and its people to rebel against Great Britain in order to return the county’s liberty. Patrick Henry used multiple rhetorical devices in his speech in order to persuade the audience. Henry also used his organizational structure to reinforce his purpose of his speech. He targets the audience in such a persuasive way that the audience gets the impression that they were meant to rebel against Great Britain. Patrick Henry believes in fighting for what you believe in, Henry wrote this speech to re acknowledge the people of what they once believed in.

Patrick Henry(May 29, 1736-June 9, 1799), through his life Henry was many things. Patrick Henry was one of the founding fathers, he was also a planter(plantation owner) and a politician who became known as an orator during the movement for independence in Virginia. Patrick Henry was also known as the 1st and 6th Governor of Virginia, from 1776 to 1779 and 1784 to 1786. Patrick Henry also led the opposition in the Stamp Act of 1775. He is considered one of the most influential champions of Republicanism along with Samuel Adams and Thomas Paine. There are a lot more things that he did, these are just some of the influential things he’s done. There is one thing that he is most revered for and that is the speech he wrote “Give Me Liberty, Or Give Me Death”, he inspired/persuaded most of the nation to fight back against Great Britain. These are just some of the things he accomplished in his lifetime.

Above all, Patrick Henry´s speech ¨Give Me Liberty, Or Give Me Death¨ was one of the most revered things he had written/accomplished in his lifetime. He used such a rhetorical way of writing so he could persuade the country to fight for what they believed in. ¨Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject?¨, this quote from ¨Give Me Liberty, Or Give Me Death¨ shows one of his ways of persuading the target audience. Patrick used logos(the principle of reason and judgement) in this quote, he showed logos in the quote by stating the fact that arguing is not the answer, they have been arguing for ten years and nothing has changed.

Furthermore, ¨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.¨, Patrick Henry used pathos in this quote to invoke sadness and pity into to the audience. He said that there is no enemy of Great Britain, nobody to help the new country( United States) fight against a country that´s been striving and growing for many years. This makes the audience feel really bad, they feel as though they’re helpless. He then goes on to say “They are meant for us; they can be meant for no other.”, the way he presented this quote stated out with pathos but then while the audience was down he brought them back up with logos(the Word of God, or principle of divine reason and creative order, identified in the Gospel of John with the second person of the Trinity incarnate in Jesus Christ), making them feel like they were destined to fight against Great Britain.

    Once again, “Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so clear, or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”, this quote ends the speech. This is the probably the most important quote of the speech because he uses pathos and logos, he makes them feel pity for the men already fighting, and makes them feel bad for just sitting idle. When they’re down he brings them back up by saying “Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what others may take but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”, the way he uses his words in such a persuasive way inflicts them hard. His speech kept bringing them down just to bring them back up again. The third, fourth, and fifth paragraphs shows three specific rhetorical devices the author employs to make his point in his speech.

Above all, the speech he gives is a basic 5 paragraph persuasive essay, but the way he projects the speech is in a serious manner. He’s directing the speech towards the president of the United States, but with a wider audience. The speech’s intro is about why he’s giving the speech, basically why he’s so motivated. The second paragraph is about the truth behind the whole reason for the speech. The third paragraph is about the reason for fighting Great Britain. The fourth is about the call to action, and the last is the conclusion. This is the structure of the he used for his speech, it might be basic but it does the job.

Finally, the main idea of the speech “Give Me Liberty, Or Give Me Death” by Patrick Henry is to re acknowledge the audience to fight for what they believe in. Even though you might be staring death in the eye that  doesn’t mean you shouldn’t fight for what you believe in. “Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offence, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the majesty of heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.”, in this quote he presents a strong ambition to fight for what he believes in, in hopes that the President and the people have the same ambition as he does.

In conclusion, “Give Me Liberty, Or Give Me Death” by Patrick Henry is a speech directed towards the President and the nations people to fight for what they believe in. Patrick Henry used a persuasive style of essay to write his speech, in his speech he used multiple rhetorical ways of writing his speech. He targeted the audience by using pathos and logos, with pathos he made the people feel bad and brought them back up by using logos. “Give Me Liberty, Or Give Me Death” is a speech by Patrick Henry, this speech was meant to encourage the people to fight back against Great Britain.