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Give me liberty or give me death but i'd prefer Liberty.....

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alright well meet Patrick Henry well he's dead so we can't really meet him [Person on a horse and Patrick Henry's grave appears]

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but take a look at it one of the greatest orator in American history

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second only to you know Ryan Seacrest what's an orator you asked well it's

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someone who orates, obviously so well okay the root of the word is orate [Man reading orator book]

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which means to speak but not to just chat about the weather when you orate

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you generally are talking to a live audience of people and your speech tends

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to be elevated lots of big words five-dollar words fancy phrasings maybe

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even a metaphor or two if you're feeling frisky plus the subject of your speech [Boy on stage talking]

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is going to be something important so you might orate about the fact that

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giraffes are going extinct this is bad or about the troubles of a struggling

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economy this is really bad or about the fact that kesha has a successful singing [People protesting about Kesha]

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career this is really really bad like a sign of the Apocalypse bad so yeah

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people tend to listen when an orator especially a great orator speaks Patrick

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Henry is definitely in the category of great orator's well he never became

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president or commanded a victorious army or invented the cell phone and yet we [Henry speaking on a cell phone]

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remember him and his words which by the way is why we're learning about this guy

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in a literature class you might have read most of his writing aloud while

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he was brilliant when it came to crafting a persuasive argument that's

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why we're studying him in fact you might be able to learn a thing or two from him [About Patrick Henry book appears]

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before beginning your next essay assignment.. anyway Henry is most

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famous for the speech he gave at the second Virginia convention in 1775 for a

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bunch of fuddy-duddies and powdered wigs gathered to discuss the possibility of

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going to war with Britain but he's really famous for one line from that

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speech in particular say it with me give me liberty or

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give me death... so what did he mean and what's the big deal about this speech [Man discussing Henry's speech]

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of his anyway well the Revolutionary War began shortly after the convention and

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there's good chance that what Henry said in his speech motivated the colonists to

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get off their trousers and rush into battle let's read the transcription of [Colonists walking into battle]

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the speech in full and see if we can get to the bottom of Henry's death wish

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unless you're the world's fastest reader you'll want to pound that pause key.

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Let's use our stellar summarizing skills to simplify each paragraph and once we've

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translated everything into basic english it'll make it easier to [Patrick Henry to english typed into shmoogle search bar]

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understand and then we'll think about what Patrick Henry was trying to

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accomplish and whether or not it worked well in the first paragraph Henry seems

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to be prepping his audience letting them know he's about to throw down some truth [Henry holding truth dynamite]

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whether they like it or not he says that different men often see the same subject

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in different lights well so he's trying to propose his own view of America's

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difficulties with an oppressive English rule you know all the stuff about

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Britain celebrating a culture of obedience and submission to the King not [Lemonade stand whipped]

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to mention their religious worship of tradition including the passing of power

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along lines of family lineage rather than by you know ability but at the same [King drops dead and crown falls on crying baby's head]

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time he's saying hey these other guys who just spoke before I did the ones who

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don't think we need to go to war well they're entitled to their opinions which

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are perfectly balanced but hear me out alright well he's basically making nice

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he doesn't want to come right out and attack anyone individually because he

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wants to sway people to his way of thinking not just a you know ruffle [Man swaying side to side]

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their collars so he's setting the stage he goes so far as to say that withholding

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his opinion would be equivalent to treason ie it's only because he loves

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his country so much that he's willing to voice an unpopular opinion which would [Patrick Henry on a chopping block]

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just about be grounds for execution across the pond in England okay second

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paragraph here Henry suggests that it's time for everyone to open their eyes and

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face the truth however unpleasant that truth might be he says we are apt to [Truth dynamite explodes]

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shut our eyes against a painful truth well sure we've probably closed our eyes

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and put our fingers in our ears when our preferred presidential candidate lost or [Person puts fingers in ears and close eyes]

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when the object of our affection turned down our invitation to the prom

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or when McDonald's discontinues the McRibwich

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Henry argues that the choice the members of the convention are about to make [Henry speaking to an audience]

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might not be the easiest decision but they are bound by their duty to their

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fellow countrymen to make the right decision all right moving on in the

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third paragraph Henry talks about how his experience and knowledge of the past

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has guided him to his present conclusion that there is now no other answer to the

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standoff with Great Britain's than war ...Okay so here's what Henry

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speech has been leading up to until now he's only hinted at his position with [Man carries pizza to Patrick Henry]

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regard to war but here he leaves no room for interpretation he uses some pretty

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convincing arguments to sell his story what means this martial array of fits

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purpose be not force us to submission well the martial array Henry's referring

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to was an assembly of armed forces the British had been gathering well he's

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saying look these guys aren't here for a dinner party obviously England is [Patrick Henry discussing England]

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sending these dudes with guns to keep us in line which is no bueno, so it becomes

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a matter of freedom if they don't act now and fight England while they still

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can it might soon be too late.... moving on to the fourth paragraph Henry

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presents some arguments as to why the time is right to engage with the Brits

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now in short, colonists have the British outnumbered the colonists have the will

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in other words they have more at stake considering they're very liberty and [Colonists carrying a flag]

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lives are on the line and will battle more passionately than the Brits and oh

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yeah they just happen to have God on their side plus the only alternative is

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submission and slavery if they don't act now the English forces in the colonies

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will grow too numerous and too powerful and their chance at freedom and liberty [English forces sailing to shore and colonists look shocked]

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and all that will be gone all right moving on in the fifth and final

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paragraph Henry presents his smart and sassy conclusion during his listeners to

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action and of course finishing off with one of the most famous quotes in

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American history give me liberty or give me death all right well what does that

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line mean? well, we probably need to back up and delve into the preceding passages

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first so let's do that..Well first the speech as a whole - what's its

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purpose like I'm sure the guy loved to hear himself talk but surely there's [Henry looking into a mirror]

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something more there well yeah in short he's speaking to a room full of people

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many of whom don't believe war is the answer some of them might think

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there's still room for diplomacy now maybe others feel you know they'd be [Soldiers pushing a canon]

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outmatched and are afraid for their lives all that kind of basic stuff well

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and maybe others are still holding on to the thin thread of hope that they're

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about to wake up and discover the whole thing was just a dream whatever their [Man wakes up in bed and soldier appears]

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reasons many of Henry's listeners needed a fire lit under their breeches to

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convince them that it was just going to take up arms and Henry came prepared

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with an oily rag and a whole can full of gasoline and cigarettes for everyone [Henry carrying cigarettes and can of gasoline]

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metaphorically speaking of course even back then you know there were fire codes

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one by one Henry presented the arguments he'd heard put forth by his many

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dissenters and proceeded to rip them apart...Britain wasn't looking to

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subjugate them ie keep them under control well then why are they

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assembling these powerful militia forces well maybe we can try reasoning with them...

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oh I've been there tried that but the situations got worse we petition

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we grovelled, we begged none of it's doing any good well it isn't the right time to go

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to war because we're not prepared enough yeah?....yeah well when are we ever going to

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be prepared enough the Brits are going to bring more men more guns and a

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longer we wait the slimmer our odds are going to get... Henry was smart methodical

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but passionate at the same time, a tough combo to pull off... okay so now what

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about that last line what did Henry mean when he said give me liberty or give me

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death well clearly he's not quite two-face here getting ready to flip the [Two face flipping a coin]

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coin Henry's not saying he wants to die what he is saying is that Liberty is

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so important he's willing to die fighting for it if that's what it takes

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rather than continue to live but without freedoms he holds dear right so yeah [Henry in a prison cell]

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Henry drives it home in the bottom of the ninth inning by telling his audience

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that their decision to go to war is literally a matter of life and death

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it's just that death isn't necessarily the worst option on this table...

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now why are we reading the speech and learning about this orator fella hundreds

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of years after he got both liberty and death well first of all the [Man riding a horse]

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revolutionary war hadn't happened you think you'd even be here it sort of

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changed the course of history no and if it wasn't for Henry the colonists might [British soldier firing a canon]

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have kept dragging their buckled shoes until British forces

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overwhelmed to them so just in terms of helping America win its freedom this

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speech was kind of a big deal our nation's culture is all about freedom

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freedom to speak our minds, freedom to work hard, and make a good living without

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being taxed to death freedom to wear our baseball cap sideways. Without Henry's [Boy wearing baseball cap sideways on TV]

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stirring speech we may not have any of our sacred freedoms today no capitalist

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system, no American dream but doesn't it also teach us a little something about the

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power of the written and spoken word well if a guy can get up in a room and [Sword appears out of the soil]

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talk for 20 minutes and change so many minds what else is possible with the

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power of language okay turning it over to you now careful for that itchy

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trigger finger there what is Henry's tone ie his attitude toward the subject

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matter in his speech what sort of things does he say and how does he say them in

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order to achieve his purpose what types of appeals does Henry use in his

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argument we're looking here for elements of ethos logos and pathos here....

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ethos is he trying to appeal to his audience a

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sense of ethics of the quality of their character or sense of right and wrong

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logos if he trying to appeal to his audience a sense of logic by trying to [Logos explained]

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rationalize their decision to go to war or pathos is he trying to appeal to his

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audience's emotions to convince them to listen to their hearts or their guts and

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finally how effective do you personally think Henry's words were if you were one

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of the folks objecting to war would you have been swayed would he have won you [Man objecting to war]

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over yep, but these bullets didn't want to use them yep just need to get one

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more hole punched on my planned battle club card...or nope I didn't really hear

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what he said had my beats on... right well shoot look at the time I must get

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some shut-eye so I must get to bed I'm sorry gun humor [Man goes to sleep in bed with a rifle]

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