American Democracy The nation of America was started by founders that had deist beliefs and who believed that all men are created equal and should have equal rights. The founding fathers all thought that all humans are perfect but make mistakes; this is the deist belief. They took ideas from the puritans who thought that all men are evil and we must try to be perfect. American democracy was created by founders with deist principles. Patrick Henry was a patriot during the American Revolution. He gave a speech to the Virginia House of Burgesses trying to convince them to fight the British, because they were taking away rights that the Colonist thought they should have. In Patrick Henry’s speech he explained, “I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death” (Henry 85). He said that he would rather die than live in oppression. He was very similar to Equiano because Equiano wanted to die instead of being a slave on the middle passage. Henry wanted to have his rights and freedoms and thought that the government shouldn’t be able to take them away. Patrick Henry used logic and emotion in his speech because he uses strong words like “death” and “liberty” and he used logic when …show more content…
He used both sides of the coin to convince the slave owners. He stated that not all slave owners were bad and said that one of his slaves owner treated him as family. He also said that slave owners were not listening to their own philosophy, and said “O, ye nominal Christians! might not an African ask you, Learned you this from your God who says unto you, Do unto all men as you would men should do unto you?” (Equiano 61). Equiano questions the slave owners with rhetorical questions so they think about what they are doing to slaves. He is also asking for equal rights that are eventually reached so an African American can be a