Question

Evaluate the effectiveness of Patrick Henry’s speech. Provide two pieces of textual evidence to support your answer.

Answer 1

Patrick Henry's speech is very effective. He simplifies the desire to leave England's rule as a choice between freedom and slavery when he says "I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery." There is no one in his audience who would choose slavery over freedom. 
Henry then outlines all the ways in which England has made them their "slaves" and uses images like "bind and rivet upon us those chains" to further the slavery metaphor. He lists all the different pleas the colonies have made to England which have been ignored. He finishes his reasoning saying that England believes the colonies to weak to fight back. He counters that idea when he says, "Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us." Henry goes on to argue that the colonies armies are significantly stronger than England because they are fighting for their homes and what is right.