This speech by Patrick Henry was delivered in March 23, 1775 during the fourth day of a revolutionary convention in Richmond, Virginia. It was revolutionary because it was independent from the colonial governmnet, despite many of the delegates hoping it would be conciliatory. The main goal was to elect new representatives to serve at the pleasure of the English governor and the Crown.
During this convention, there were two sides concerning the colonies relationship to Britain: those who thought negotiation and patience would bring results, and those who believed that the only solution would be a revolutionary war. Patrick Henry was one of the latter.
On his speech, Henry claimed that a resolution was needed authorizing Virginia to raise a militia, answering Britain's claim that one of the reasons to heavily tax the colonies was to keep an army to their defense.
At the beginning of the speech, Henry was calm in tone and courtly in his words. He praised the previous delegates that had spoken before him and their patriotism in order to present himself as one of them, a patriot and reasonable man that was suffering from the same oppression.
But after that, he stated that he did not share their opinion that peace was the answer and that the colonies should take another course. Peace had already been tried for a long time without any practical effect: "We have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne."
With this part of the speech, Henry conveys the idea of having exhausted all the peaceful responses, buiding a sense of humiliation that has to stop. After that, he lets go all his passion and addresses the audience more intensely, moving them and trying to arouse fervor in them. Once he has their favour, Henry insists that war is inevitable and the only decent response against slavery under the British Crown.
This is presented in the last part of the speech. It does not matter how loud they cried for peace, because they were already fighting a war and other colonies were already awakening in their fight against the British rule. In the end, Henry gives a battle cry to the already fervorous crowd. The only life worth living is that in which he is free from the colonial rule, and he better be dead that living in chains.
