September 2 marks another patriotic day, which happened 20 years ago today, when the PBS kids' show Liberty's Kids premiered on Labor Day, September 2, 2002.
The show has 40 episodes that tell about events of the American Revolutionary era, from the Boston Tea Party to the establishment of the US Constitution. Viewers see the events through the eyes of four fictional protagonists who reside at Benjamin Franklin's home in Philadelphia. There are three youths: James, French immigrant Henri, and Sarah, who came from Britain. There's also Moses, a free African brought to slavery in North America who bought his freedom. The first two episodes tell their back stories while also narrating the Boston Tea Party and its aftermath in Boston. As part of seeing the events from their perspective, James is an aspiring journalist who drafts news reports on the events. Sarah writes letters to her mother back home in England, as she awaits the chance to connect with her father, a British officer who is serving in the frontier of British North America.
This show had an enormous impact on me as a preteen, as part of a perfect coincidence of circumstances. As I shall post about soon, this show debuted the day before I started 6th grade at Percy Julian Middle School. My middle school years truly defined the important parts of my character, especially in my understanding of who I am as a citizen of the United States of America, and what that means.
I started to think more about what it means to be part of the USA in the wake of September 11, just about a year before this show's debut, when we, as a people, rose up to embrace patriotism as a way to help us through the process of mourning and healing. In that atmosphere, I started to think more about this country and its history and how that informs our identity. I also felt a sense of patriotism months after September 11, and a month before this show debuted, seeing the US flag draped over my Grandpa Martin's casket and his interment ceremony at Lincoln National Cemetery as part of the honors he received for serving in the US Navy during World War II.
I already had a strong interest in the American Revolutionary time period, so I was eager to watch the show, and it became a regular habit on Fridays each week. The school day would end at 3:30. I would walk home, arriving around 4 PM. After practicing piano and having a snack, I would be in front of the TV at 4:30 to watch the show, which lasted about half an hour. I enjoyed it as a way to enter into weekend mode.
The show featured an amazing cast of characters from that time period, including George Washington, Thomas Paine, the Marquis de Lafayette, Samuel Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and John Hancock. Some of these characters were voiced by famous actors: Billy Crystal as John Adams, Annette Bening as Abigail Adams, Ben Stiller as Thomas Jefferson, Walter Cronkite as Benjamin Franklin, Whoopi Goldberg as Deborah Sampson, Liam Neeson as John Paul Jones, Sylvester Stallone as Paul Revere, Dustin Hoffman as Benedict Arnold, and Warren Buffett as James Madison.
I also learned about other figures with important stories, like Moses Michael Hayes, a Jewish person, although I have been unable to verify if he is a fictional character in the show, or if he truly lived. The series also gave a very nuanced telling of Benedict Arnold's story, as he was an esteemed soldier in the US army, earning even General Washington's admiration, before a souring relationship with peers and Congress caused him to betray the American cause and join the British army.
Besides Paul Revere's famous night ride was the even longer night ride of Sybil Ludington, the teenage daughter of an American army officer who rode to alert soldiers to prepare for a British attack.
Another story I learned was about Elizabeth Freeman, a Massachusetts enslaved woman who sued for her freedom in court, and won, a sign of changing times in the Revolutionary era. Phyllis Wheatley was an enslaved woman in Boston, who made a name for herself with her poetry. She appears in the first two episodes.
I once checked out the complete series from the library, and in the extras, those involved in the making of the show shared how they had some very intentional conversations about how to address slavery in the series. Throughout the episodes, it's clear that the actions of the movers and shakers of this era had wide-ranging implications, and slavery was just one of them.
The implications of the American Revolution became apparent in the final episode, which focuses largely on the creation of the US Constitution at the Constitutional Convention in the summer of 1787. At the end of that episode, the main fictional protagonists reflect with Benjamin Franklin on the implications of what has just happened, and, even in the face of the challenges present, how much potential there is for the USA.
In the episode about the vote for independence and the Declaration of Independence, James learns an important lesson on the power of words, as he witnesses Thomas Jefferson in the process of drafting the Declaration of Independence. Indeed, people throughout this era, as throughout all of history, have done their part and made an impact on history through their contributions, especially in written words.
This show resonated with me so greatly because it was an opportunity to see history and thus, appreciate it, which speaks to the title lyrics of the show's theme song, "Through My Own Eyes". It was performed by two singers Kayla, who also voiced Sybil Ludington, and Aaron Carter, who voiced a private named Joseph Plumb Martin. They performed it live at A Capitol Fourth concert on July 4 prior to the show's debut.
One of the scenes that stirred me most was President Washington's inauguration, in the final part of the last episode. Reflecting on that scene, I realize that it was only about 2 1/2 years prior that I watched the first inauguration of President George W. Bush, the first time I had viewed a presidential inauguration ceremony. That experience gave a certain feel to watching the scene of President Washington's inauguration as a way to see how the presidency got started under the new constitutional government. It was a pretty exuberant scene, especially with the soundtrack that plays.
The tone of that scene was, in some ways, set in the third to last episode, we see how George Washington deliberately turned away from taking advantage of instability in the nascent American government to seize power for himself. He instead convinced the officers of his army to cease their intentions of mutiny and show patience to Congress for paying them. Eventually, General Washington resigned his commission, a stunning act that even bewildered King George III. The scene of that act was stirring to watch. And by that act, George Washington set a new tone that would influence the nature of the government that the USA launched in the wake of the American Revolution. Coming at the end of the final episode, the first presidential inauguration of George Washington was a fitting way to cap all the efforts of some many people throughout the American Revolutionary era to launch a new country with a government, unlike anything the world had seen before it.
Indeed, as I experienced from watching the other episodes, I gained a new sense of what it was like when the USA came into existence. Experiencing its origins helped me better appreciate what this country is about. And the scene of President Washington's inauguration, among others, speaks to the impact this show had on me, truly making me feel proud to be a citizen of the United States.
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