Speech to the Second Virginia Convention

Henry’s speech is an essential surviving document from the revolutionary period of American history during which thirteen colonies transformed from British landholdings to American states. The colonies-turned-states were Connecticut New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

The British had many colonies—about 30—in different parts of the world by the era of the American Revolution. When Henry mentions his country and uses the “we” pronoun, he is referencing men within his home colony, Virginia, and their counterparts in the other 12 colonies on the East Coast of North America.

This is a term that Henry uses in Paragraph 3 of the speech and a core concept in his argument. Henry is specifically referring to British troops stationed within Virginia (and other colonies) and British naval ships visible in the water just offshore. Henry argues that this display of armed forced indicates that a war has already begun, despite the fact that those forces were not actively and violently attacking colonists. He asks his audience to consider why else Britain would send these military parties if not to forcibly subjugate the colonists. Henry insists that the war has already started because of British intimidation and political attacks; he argues that the colonists respond with common sense and practicality instead of bold and potentially reckless action.