Speech to the Virginia Convention - Reflection Blog

I think that Patrick Henry's Speech to the Virginia Convention is a very interesting piece of literature for a variety of reasons. For one, it demonstrates a magnificent example of the Rationalism period that was developing during the time. Another reason I found the document very interesting was the fact that it was a different type of reading from the boring Puritan writing that we have been reading in English. The tone of the story is very persuasive. I find it interesting that the speaker of the story used his talent to talk to his audience about the changes they needed to undergo. During the Rationalism period, people began to forget about the idea that God was working daily in their lives and watching over them. Society began to rationalize themselves and seek answers to questions regarding nature, science, and other topics of interest. In his speech, Patrick Henry uses a popular technique many speakers used during the Rationalism period. He persuades his audience to follow his ideas and theories, but then also backs them up. In one example, Henry uses this rational technique to change the President's mind. Throughout his argument, the speaker also uses repetition to get his logical point across. "Give me liberty, or give me death," (Henry 118). Here, Henry's forceful statement, telling the audience to "give" him this or that really enforces his persuading attitude. Patrick Henry sort of portrays himself as a "my way or the highway" kind of guy. Overall, using a rational approach to presenting ideas, which include persuasion and a repetitive tone, Henry connects logically and efficiently with his audience. This tone is completely different from Puritan writing, seeing that in that style of writing, people looked up to God as their almighty Savior. The Rationalism period really helped in getting people to think outside of the box. It gave them an opportunity to step outside of their realm of religious thoughts and beliefs. They were able to hear an opinion other than that of traditional ideas and form their own concept of life. This time period highly influenced many people, including that of Patrick Henry. His speech to the people of the United States is one of the more interesting of Rationalism documents in my opinion. Going back to Henry's quote, "give me liberty, or give me death", I believe these infamous words from a very notorious man highly reflect what society began to stand for back in the late 1700's.

I think that Rationalism writing is interesting to read, especially the primary source documents. I think that the new ideas that began to form were outside of the box ideas and it was interesting to see how the public reacted to the new thoughts. I am looking forward to reading more in the future.

Henry, Patrick. "Speech to the Second Virginia Convention." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 113-118. Print.