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"Curse You, Patrick Henry" -- Memorizing the "Liberty or Death" Speech

10/14/2013

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A Film Wherein a History Professor, Way out West... 
        Struggles to Learn Patrick Henry's Great Speech

Picture
From the Film: Photography by Cory Carpenter and Jake Shelley

I like to learn speeches, documents, and poems by heart to "pull out of my hat" while teaching American history. A couple of days ago I talked about and "channeled for" Patrick Henry and his "Liberty or Death" speech, delivered on the eve of the American Revolution. (See previous post.) 

I first memorized the speech way back in 1976 as part of a Bicentennial TV documentary done by historians of the Revolution in Washington State. I've delivered it from memory in class and for friends many times, but I've grown a bit rusty, and this fall I "cheated" and used notes for some of the speech. That afternoon after class while taking a walk through the rolling wheat fields outside of Cheney I practiced the speech in my mind over and over. And that is when the theme of this little film came to mind.

Yesterday, I ventured out onto a wheat field road with two students, Cory Carpenter and Jake Shelley, to make this little film about the trials and triumphs of putting the memory to work on a famous speech.

Click below to see the film.

 Go ahead. Click on it. 

It only runs for three minutes, and it's free!

   This current post is one of a growing number of historically-themed entries on americanrealities.com.
Click here and see more entries on the American Realities blog.
(You know you want to!)
If you enjoyed this post, you may also enjoy a previous post on Patrick Henry and his famous speech:
          -- "Patrick Henry's 'Liberty or Death' from the Revolution to the Classroom"


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       Some years ago, while writing a biography of Eleanor Roosevelt I jotted this note in my journal: "I want to tell the stories of American History as though I were among friends, sitting beside a fire." In this web site and blog I aim to tell some of those stories in words, images, films -- and with other media marvels.

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