In the years preceding the American Revolution, colonial American patriots realized that they would need to sway the vast number of undecided colonists by appealing not only to their heads but to their hearts as well. In addition to oratory and pamphlets they published songs, poems, satires, and allegories, all designed to fan the flames of outrage and create an emotional, visceral rationale for pursuing independence and throwing off the presumed yoke of British oppression. This class reviews the literary side of patriotic propaganda by analyzing some of the submissions that ran in the Virginia Gazette(s) between 1774 and 1776.