PATRICK HENRYSchool: Education

Teacher: Yony Cárdenas CornelioStudent: Guadalupe Roque Polo

San Marcos University

December 3rd, 2011

Patrick Henry(1736-1799)

Biography

EARLY YEARS• Henry was born in

Studley, Hanover County, Virginia in 1736.

• Henry attended local schools for a few years, and then was tutored by his father.

• After failing in business, in 1754 he married Sarah Shelto.

AMERICAN REVOLUTION• Patrick Henry is best

known for the speech he made in the House of Burgesses on March 23, 1775, in Saint John's Church in Richmond, Virginia.

• The aim was to discuss the British military buildup in America.

• Henry argued in favor of mobilization.

LATE YEARS• After the Revolution,

Henry again served as governor of Virginia from 1784 to 1786, but declined to attend the Constitutional Convention of 1787 .

• Henry was an outspoken critic of the United States Constitution.

Speech in the Virginia Convention

Patrick Henry

Literary focus: Oratory

RHETORICAL QUESTION

• A question that the speaker really does not intend as a question or one that he means to answer himself.

• Shall we try argument?

REPETITION• It is the simple

repeating of a word, within a sentence or a poetical line, with no particular placement of the words, in order to emphasize.

• We must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight!

IMPROVISATION

• Skill of speaking without reading word for word from a written text.

Historical Context

• The colonies in North America first rejected the authority of the Parliament of Great Britain to govern them from overseas without representation, and then expelled all royal officials.

• By 1774 each colony had established a Provincial Congress, or an equivalent governmental institution, to form individual self-governing states, but still within the empire. The British responded by sending combat troops to re-impose direct rule.

Summary

• Pactrick Henry successfully and compellingly articulated his support for war with Great Britain through well-organized, thorough arguments and effective use of simile, personification, logical reasoning, rhetorical questioning, and emotional appeal.

• He has the most balance in his speech compared to both Paine's and Jefferson's writing because he pivots on a central points of logos on one side and ethos and pathos on the other.

Main points

The war with England was inevitable and the longer they waited the

harder the war would be to win.

It is natural for gentlemen to hope for peace, but

asserts that there is a time for peace, but that time

has passed.

While America is working for love and

reconciliation, England is sending fleets and armies.

Ethos

"LOVE AND RECONCILIATION"• The cultural context of Henry's speech is that

the war has already started and he is urging the Virginia Convention to vote to take up arms against the British.

"those who have eyes, do not see, and those with ears, do not hear, the things which so nearly

concern their temporal salvation."

Pathos

• Henry shows that it is wrong to relay on hope and it is the ethical thing to take up arms.

"It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country."

Logos

• The logos contribution of Henry's address makes use of solid facts to convince the people of Virginia that fighting or slavery are the only possible outcomes of their meeting.

"Are fleets and armies necessary to work a love and reconciliation?"

"We have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves."

WORKSHEET