Jaden Thammalangsy

Mr. Horton

English 11 / p.6

29 November 2018

Speech to virginia convention

1775 was a time of new settlement, upcoming wars, and a time of the development

of the mindset of splitting off from one of the largest countries of the world. With people

giving strong sermons and speeches such as the puritans were able to strongly develop

their sense of mind about England, and how to be rid of that controlling country.

Patrick Henry was an american author, planter, and orator that had his life in

Virginia. His purpose of writing this famous speech was to oppose British rule and to fight

for God’s purpose of them being independent. The audience of this speech was definitely

congressmen of the states, and high, educated aristocrats in the area. Throughout this

speech, logos was definitely used to when he referenced to all the things Britain had done,

including making themselves superior, and this proves to be logos because logical human

nature actions have showed that humans don’t like to feel non superior to others. Henry

also persuades all types of his audience through the sounding excitement throughout his

speech. He compares being brave to fighting battles, and his questions definitely had an

appeal to his direct audience especially his questions pertaining to when the british might

possibly attack or revoke them.

Henry had a strong appeal to Pathos with his mentionings of hope, fulfillment and

liberty. Throughout the whole speech, Henry poses questions to his audience that overall
question their sense of love for their independence. One of the largest, effective metaphors

used came from paragraph three: “they are sent over to blind and rivet upon us those

chains…”, this has proven to be a powerful metaphor because the other historical reference

to enslavement by liberty. The author also has proven to use strong syntax and the

repetition of the words “sir”, “they”, and “we.”

Allusion was also proven to be Henry’s strongest use of rhetorical appeal

throughout his speech, through his reference to God, and his explicit techniques to rally

against England. Henry used explicit strategies to engage his audience by explaining how

they should “stand up,” and he gave credible reasons why they must try to gain their

liberty.

Before they gained their independence, the colonies went off the raging lessons of

sermons and famous speeches. This was one of the famous speeches that had an overall

appeal towards the rally cry of freedom from England.