When I was growing up, my dad was a Knox County Public School teacher. He specialized in American History and taught History and Social Studies at Mascot, East Knox Elementary, Carter Middle, and after retirement he taught at New Hope Christian School for a while. Needless to say, History was always my favorite subject in school. My dad had a way of bringing history to life and that made learning fun.
One of the things my dad did to help teach me about the American Revolution was to buy a set of
Heroes of the American Revolution dolls. I can't recall how many of them we had but I do remember my very favorite one was
Patrick Henry. For some reason I adopted Patrick Henry as my favorite Hero of that time period. I suppose it was because of his famous line, "
Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!," from a portion of
his speech before the Virginian Convention, in which he said: "
Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me,
Give me Liberty, or give me Death!" I thought he must have been one of the bravest men in history.
This morning I read over
Patrick Henry's famous speech to the Virginian Convention and notice that he mentioned God five different times within the course of the 1,214 word speech. Not only that, his speech is laced with Biblical references and borrowed expressions, such as when he says:
"Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss." This is a clear reference to when Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss in the garden of Gethsemane just before His arrest. Hmmm, just something to ponder on.
1 comments:
History is now my favorite subject in homeschooling. I am amazed at how our country was founded on God. It's too bad our current leaders do not learn from their example.
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