Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death

Patrick Henry, widely considered a Founding Father of the United States, delivered his speech “Give me Liberty, or Give me Death” to the Second Virginia Convention in 1775. The goal of the convention was to decide how to handle Britain’s military threat. Henry believed in fighting for independence—the speech’s immediate goal was to convince Virginia to raise a militia—while others wanted to compromise with Britain. Although no manuscript of Henry’s speech exists, accounts from convention attendees were compiled, and the current text was canonized 42 years later by William Wirt in his biography on Patrick Henry.

This guide refers to the text printed in Holt McDougal’s 2007 Elements of Literature: Essentials of American Literature anthology.

Henry addresses his speech to the president of the Virginia Convention: Peyton Randolph. He offers respect to the men who spoke before him, acknowledging that people may reasonably disagree on a subject. He then pronounces that the question of independence is an important one. Henry intimates that this discussion is so important to their country that he cannot keep his thoughts to himself; if he did, he would be “guilty of treason” and of dishonoring

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