Literature in the Colonial Period “The distinction between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders, are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an American,” as Patrick Henry, said at a meeting with the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. The radicals of the colonies were highly persuasive by using theme and key articles and speeches. American literature played a big role in changing American forever. First off, theme played a huge role in changing America and American literature during the Colonial period. One theme, equality, made Americans began to strike back because of the taxes, tariffs, and complete mistreatment of the American people. Equality was what the American people fought for, believed in, and dreamed …show more content…
For example, Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech is a key example. He uses very persuasive and to the point arguments such as when he says “They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger?” as he tries to convince the First Continental Congress that now is the time to strike back at the British. Another very article would be “Common Sense” by Thomas Paine. The structure of this article seems to be amazing because he writes an essay with such amazing attention getters to start each new paragraph. For example, “America did not, nor does not want force; but she wanted a proper application of that force.” His clever use of structure mixed with his very persuasive words turned this into one of the most important articles in the Revolution. Writing was such a big part of the time back then because the people couldn’t go home and flick the television on and catch it on the news. Instead they read the articles and read the newspaper so using articles was a big part of promoting a Revolution throughout the colonies. Although there were plenty of historical articles throughout this time period, these two summed them all up well. The use of clever and unique sayings that will go down in history and forever-changed American history will be forever