What metaphors does Henry use in his "Speech to the Virginia Convention"?

In his "Speech to the Virginia Convention," Henry returns repeatedly to the metaphor of chains and slavery to characterize the relationship between the colonies and Britain. He introduces the metaphor when he says, "They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging."

The second reference to enslavement is found in these lines:

"There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston!"

Henry's last use of this metaphor is found in his final rhetorical question:

"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?"

Many of America's founding fathers in the colonial period owned slaves, including House of Burgesses members and Virginians George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Patrick Henry even owned slaves. For these white landowners and powerful men to consider themselves slaves to Britain would have been abhorrent, and there is no small irony in the metaphor that Henry chose to appeal to their masculine pride and dignity.

The speech is filled with many other metaphors, such as the "gale that sweeps from the North," that represents the outbreaks of violence that have already occurred in Boston.