The book "Or Give Me Death" by Ann Rinaldi was written during the 1700's. This book has some themes that are reflected during that time period. The time period was during the revolutionary war. This book is a novel of Patrick Henry's family. Patrick Henry was a statesman who fought for independence during the revolutionary period. Patrick Henry has a wife, Sarah, and had six children, who are John, Anne, Will, baby Edward, Betsy, and the oldest Patsy. Patsy starts noticing that her mother has gone mentally ill and she figured it was because of her dad never being home and always going away. Sarah has gone to the point in where she tries to drown her smallest son and also tries to hurt her other children. Patsy and her father, with the help of others decide to lock her in their house cellar before she hurts anyone else. Sarah thinks that Pegg, her negro servant, is the one responsible for poisoning her. Sarah warns people about problems that will happen in Virginia but they all think its because she is going crazy. She also believes that her own husband is dead, when he really isn't. Through all the problems and obstacles the author discovers the possibilities that the famous speech of Patrick Henry "Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death" may have been spoken by his mentally ill, dying wife before him. The Constitution of the United States was written during this time period.

            The idea that the author uses of Patrick Henry's wife going mentally insane is very intense, but why did she go insane? The author supports this idea by blaming the fact that she goes insane to her husband, sine he is never home and always out. The author shows the idea of inheritance, "My mama's mad, and I fear that having her blood in my veins the same will happen to me". Her mom's madness is giving her strength to predict the future. The problem is that nobody pays attention to her, which gives the idea of distrust between the family.

            One of the other ideas conveyed in this book is that Negroes believed in many different weird things. For example, they believed in ghost stories and loved to story tell. The servant that helped Sarah around the house believed in second sights and uncommon powers. The author writes, "The negroes believed in things like second sight powers. We paid no mind to their nonsense". This reflects the idea of powers and probably the sixth sense but that the owners didn't care and thought it was dumb.

            During this time period, women were portrayed different, had different ways, and also thought different. Men believed that a woman should never even try to control their husbands by any of the following: opposition, anger, or displeasure. Some women found it easier not to nurse their own children, instead give them to somebody else to do so. This is shown when the author says, "Most planters' wives don't nurse their own children". The wife Sarah reminds her daughter that a true lady should never admit she loves a man. These are some ideas that the author introduces.

            There were many important things during this time period. Such as the importance of the newspaper, as in this book, it was called the Gazette. One of the laws that are presented in this book that reflects on this decade is that there was no religious toleration. Many priest were being persecuted. The Stamp Act and Parliament Act were occurring during the revolutionary period.

            The book "Or Give Me Death" by Ann Rinaldi is a good book that gives the reader a good sense of the things that were happening during the revolutionary period. It shows the different ways of things and in this case it shows a family who struggles through the obstacles and learns to survive.

  

 

 

 

http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=9780152050764, "Or Give Me Deah"AnnRinaldi,GulliverBooks,August2004