This is the famous 1775 speech in which Patrick Henry called out, "Give me liberty or give me death!"

   Patrick Henry was a Virginia lawyer who had been agitating against the British since the Stamp Act ten years earlier.  This speech was made in Richmond, where Virginia's leaders were meeting to decide what response the colony should take on the growing dispute with Great Britain.  (Today, the speech is re-enacted each year in the church building that was used for the meeting.) 

   Keep in mind that this speech was made more than a month before the fighting at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts.

Group discussion questions

   Patrick Henry says that the choice confronting the colonies in 1775 is a choice between "freedom or slavery."  Like any good public speaker, he casts the question in a way that almost forces the listener to accept his point of view. 

   Henry admits what everyone knew about the British forces - that the "accumulation of navies and armies" was "formidable."  To attempt to fight such an opponent seemed to many colonial leaders nothing short of insanity.
 
   To build his case, Henry makes these points:

• The colonies have tried talk and argument for ten years, with no result.
• Even if the colonies are weak, delay will not help them become stronger.
• The colonial population is large and in control of the land.
• The colonial population has a "holy cause" to fight for - liberty.
• God will take an interest in the outcome.
• Other countries will come in to help the colonies in the fight against Great Britain.
• Battles are not always won by the stronger side, but by the side that is active and brave.
• It is too late to avoid a fight, and the war is about to begin.