Patrick Henrys Speech at the Virginia Convention - Essay Example

This fact, reading into Henry’s argument, is inevitable and mistakable only through misperception or self-deception. These misperceptions are what Henry hopes to dispel by laying out his case, taking it as his duty and responsibility, to both himself and his country, to make these facts clear and open. His argument culminates in an immediate call for action: that with each passing week, month, and year, Britain slips her hand around America’s throat. The choice Britain has left her colonies with, according to Henry, is the choice between freedom and slavery, which is needless to say equivalent to the choice between liberty or death.

Henry, in his rhetoric, makes the present conflict sound inevitable, which goes far in producing the desired effect in his listener. By detailing how near the battle is, he hopes to evoke some reflexive action in the men of the delegation, to rouse support for an organized and forceful response, and a recognition of certain unambiguous facts. Henry makes it clear that these misperceptions are betrayals to oneself and one’s country and are equivalent to treason. Henry commonly evokes the extremes of freedom and slavery.

He keeps pressing the theme of subjugation throughout his speech and notes that subjugation will only come through inaction, that death will come through the wrong kind of action (but is nevertheless better than slavery), and freedom will come through the most appropriate response. Henry’s masterful use of metaphor lays the situation out for the legislators in terms everyone can understand.