Rhetorical Analysis Patrick Henry

“I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience.” The time is 1775, and Patrick Henry is tasked with delivering a speech to the Virginia Convention to convince them to form a militia. He was a respected lawyer and was heavily opposed to Britain’s policies. Patrick Henry’s “Speech to the Virginia Convention” uses pathos to tell the colonists that they have no time to compromise with the British and that the British will show them no mercy. Henry’s usage of pathos helps instill fear into the colonists. “There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston!” (Henry 4). Henry says that if the colonists back down, they will become slaves

to the British. The colonists see being a slave as a bad thing, but it would be a result of them submitting to the British. He uses pathos to say that they can no longer ask for peace. “In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope.” (Henry 3). He believes that they cannot hope for the British to go away. The colonists are told that their efforts for peace are futile, and they can no longer back down. Pathos would have influenced the colonists because they were being told that what they were doing was not working, and it would result in them becoming slaves. By using pathos, Henry tells the colonists that they cannot back down or ignore the British. Where would America be without Henry?