What argument and claims does Henry present in "Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death!"? Are his claims valid and supported with relevant and sufficient evidence? Does he use effective reasoning to support his argument? Does he use false statements or
fallacious reasoning? Use evidence from the text to support your response. Your response should be at two or three complete
paragraphs.

Put this information into your own words. also, you have to offer evidence from patrick henry's speech.

on march 21st, 1775, patrick henry gave a speech that would be quoted for centuries to come—”give me liberty, or give me death! ” henry gave this speech to the second virginia convention (specifically addressed to peyton randolph, the president of the convention) as a proposal to form a voluntary infantry for each county of virginia in order to prepare for what henry saw as the inevitable war. many men wanted to wait for a reply from the king as congress had petitioned for peace and reconciliation. henry, however, did not believe this was a smart move; he said whether they acted now was “a question of freedom or slavery.” the ultimate decision was to fight a dreadful war for their american rights or to sit back and continue to be controlled by an entirely separate and distant country. to support this idea, henry made a biblical allusion to the the betrayal of jesus by peter, “suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss.” england claimed to have the best interests in mind and promised that the actions of the crown were for the betterment of the colonies—just as peter claimed to have such love for jesus—but there was obvious betrayal by the unfair taxation and the stationed british military throughout america. 

although henry’s argument was very well structured, he did commit a couple logical fallacies   —as many speechwriters do. the first one has already been mentioned. henry describes the consequences of not fighting back against the british crown as “a question of freedom or slavery.” while this sounds greats and is bound to rile up much support, it is a “slippery slope” that he is describing. what this statement says is that if the americans do not put up a fight they will forever be slaves to great britain. however, the logical fallacy lies in the meaning of the word slave. the merriam-webster english dictionary defines a slave as “someone who is legally owned by another person and is forced to work for that person without pay.” the correct terminology for what the early americans were experiencing would be more along the lines of oppression, not slavery. another logical fallacy henry committed is in the most famous line of the speech—”give me liberty, or give me death.” in this “either/or” statement henry goes to an extreme and oversimplifies the argument. the americans were not fighting for much more than liberty: peace of mind, american values, and for a fair government. also, it is understood that many would choose death over these rights, however, an expansion of this idea could have easily rid the speech of this logical fallacy.