Patrick Henry-"Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death!" - Part 1 of the American Documents Series

Patrick Henry-"Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death!" - Part 1 of the American Documents Series

Hi, I’m Christy Shriver. And welcome to the How to Love Lit Podcast.

I’m Garry Shriver. We’re glad you’re joining us, if you enjoy our work, please consider supporting us by giving us a five star rating on your podcast ap, such as apple. Also, consider texting your favorite episode to a friend. That’s how we grow.

Today, we begin a three part series where we explore three historical documents that have fallen into the American literary canon, not only for their historical importance, but also for their literary excellence.

As the history person, I get very excited when history and literature overlap- and today’s speech is an incredible example of literature changing the world.

Yes- that’s right. Today, we are going to analyze Patrick Henry’s Speech to the Virginian Convention- clearly a persuasive writing piece. Next week we’re going to look at the Declaration of Independence, and finally, we’re going to read and discuss the Constitution of the United States of America- primarily from a literary perspective. I’m very excited to explore these works, not just because they ae famous, but because they are rhetorical. As we’ve discussed, a lot of my teaching instruction centers around the analysis of rhetoric and these works are some of the very first in the American Canon- they are foundational but I don’t say BEST, because honestly, America has produced some really remarkable and important pieces of rhetoric. We’ve already featured Frederick Douglass and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, but that’s not even the tip of the iceberg. There is a lot that has gone into the American conversation over the last 200 years, so Garry, since we’re starting at the beginning- which I guess we’re not- we’re onbly starting 200 years ago, but start us 200 years ago with the migration of European peoples to the Americas as our starting point, how do we get to Patrick Henry?

The tide of migration from Europe to North America, is only one occasion of the restless movements of mankind on this planet we all share. Of course, just on this podcast, we’ve looked at the Greek spirit as well as the Roman spirit, most notably represented through the person of Julius Caesar. But, of course, world history is the story of this progression- if you want to call it that- all over the globe. What stands as unique in the North American case, and something that was highly unusual, is that the thousands who came to the North American colonies did not only come here to exploit and conquer in the name of the Motherland- although that happened here too- there is little doubt. But strangely, most of the voluntary immigrants, did so because they did not like the country they came from nor many of the patterns of life that had evolved there.

In the beginning they were the offscouring of European society whose condition was so bad that moving to a wilderness settlement was a better option.

They came to create a new political and religious world- and although the North American story is not a story of perfect people doing perfect things- it’s often bloodly and sad- but what has emerged here after many years of stuggle- has become a notable success story for many on planet earth. The ideals that developed over the last 300 years have elevated the quality of life for millions that today call the United States home. So we want to take the next three weeks to explore three foundational documents that set in motion a system of government that is the basis for the oldest continuous working democracy in the world- today we’re going to look at Patrick Henry’s fiery speech before the Revolutionary war at the Virginia convention. Next week we’ll read through the Declaration of Independence and lastly we’ll look at to the Constitution.

Yes- When we think of exploration around the world, or at least me as I was brought up studying the colonization of Brazil and then last week as we saw with the Conquistadores- but I know this is also true for migrations to the African continent- we think of European developers looking for resources from other lands and and taking them back to Europe. For example, in the case of the Brazil, most colonizers were men employed by companies. They wanted gold, wood and other natural resources.

Well, don’t think that didn’t happened in North America too because that’s part of our story too. Four of the 13 colonies in North America owed their origins to trading companies. The English, the Dutch, the Swedes all christened settlements that eventually became colonies. So we have that. We also have this unusual religious foundation that we don’t commonly see in other colonizations movements. And in the case of this part of North Americs- it was the most influential faction. There were at least 20,000 pilgrims alone who came over in this group. I know lots of people are familiar with...