Patrick Henry Speech Analysis

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Common Purpose of Revolutionary Speeches Most of the speeches given in the Revolutionary era all seemed to have one main purpose. This purpose was discussed in both Patrick Henry’s speech to the Virginia Convention and “The Crisis No.1” by Thomas Paine. These two documents were some very important and key ideas during this time period involved in helping the people make their decision about staying with Great Britain. The main purpose of these two documents was freedom from Great Britain for the Colonies. Both of these men were very persuasive in their methods of getting the point they were trying to make across. While Thomas Paine and Patrick Henry both used different methods in delivering what they wanted to say they were both very …show more content…
1 how Britain was a tyranny and that the colonies would have been much better off if they had separated from Britain long before they started to rebel from them. Paine wrote “We did not make a proper use of last winter, neither could we, while we are a dependant state,” (Paine, 88) because he was trying to prove to the colonists that in every aspect the colonies would be better off without Britain’s rule over them. By the time Patrick Henry gave his speech and Thomas Paine had written his pamphlets the colonies were in a full fledged war with Britain and the majority of the colonists were already rebels. Thomas Paine felt very strongly about this particular topic as many other colonists did because it directly affected their lives. Because this situation with Britain directly had many hardships for the colonists they for the most part could see the best choice for them and their future for not only the colonies but also for their families and children. “Twice we marched back toward the enemy, and remained out tilll dark,” (Paine, 91) this is showing that the colonists may not have had the biggest or strongest army but they had heart and they really did not want Britain to be able to tell them what they had to pay extra for, what they could and could not buy, and even how much of a certain thing they were allowed to