RALEIGH – People deal with winter weather in varying, telling ways.
Some nestle under a blanket with a warm cup of something and wait it out. Some become glued to local TV news and keep careful track of what falls where (apparently, there’s a test). Some venture outside just a couple of times to watch the flakes fall or check on pets and vehicles. Some revel in the opportunity to slip, slide, sled, and sling frozen projectiles (and, if they are like my sons, they revel in the opportunity to dirty up as many articles of clothing as possible).
As for me, when last weekend’s winter storm brought several inches of snow and sleet to Wake County, cancelling several professional and recreational engagements, I took the opportunity to spool dozens of hours of kids programs from my DVR to DVDs. I’m just that geeky, though in my defense I’ll also point out that the process requires only occasional oversight and thus allows one to, for example, chase after half-frozen boys with discarded coats and bandage snowball-war wounds.
My payoff was to complete a full collection of Liberty’s Kids, a fantastic PBS animated series from several years ago that has more recently run in syndication on the History Channel and This TV, a cable network and programming service for digital broadcasters (in the Triangle area, it runs on WRAL’s 5.2 channel).
The concept behind Liberty’s Kids isn’t new – to teach history to young people by dramatizing it with fictional children as participants in the action – but the execution and production values are unsurpassed. The 40-episode series relates the major events of the American Founding, from the Boston Tea Party to the Constitutional Convention, by mixing historical characters and events with the adventures of three young journalists – a young American patriot, a British girl with mixed feelings about the conflict, and a French orphan. The three youngsters work for Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette along with another major character, a free black printer named Moses.
Franklin is the most prominent historical character on the show, and is voiced effectively by, if you can believe it, the late Walter Kronkite. Many other celebrities and actors portray key roles on the series, including Ben Stiller (Thomas Jefferson), Billy Crystal (John Adams), Annette Bening (Abigail Adams), Michael Douglas (Patrick Henry), Warren Buffet (James Madison), Dustin Hoffman (Benedict Arnold), Arnold Schwarzenegger (Baron von Steuben), Liam Neeson (John Paul Jones), Michael York (Admiral Richard Howe), Norman Schwarzkopf (George Rogers Clark), and Sylvester Stallone (Paul Revere).
While providing a surprisingly detailed and nuanced account of the major battles, conflicts, and political debates involving these characters, Liberty’s Kids also does a good job of portraying other historical figures that aren’t as well-known but deserve to be. These include the young American soldier Joseph Plumb Martin (played by singer Aaron Carter), whose indispensable account of life in the Continental Army was published in 1830; the African-American poet Phillis Wheatley; Spanish military leader Bernardo de Galvez (played by Univision TV star Don Francisco); Mohawk leader Joseph Brant; and Hessian officer Johann Rall.
The series is a step above previous efforts to make history programming for children. For one thing, the fictional characters are used merely to make the story accessible and compelling to the audience. They don’t become the main focus of the action, or worse yet little more than comic relief.
For another, none of the issues raised by the Revolution is trivialized. The series explores the divided loyalties of British subjects in America, the contradiction of slaveholders fighting for the principle of liberty, the complexities of European diplomacy, the role of women and blacks in the struggle, the fate of Indian tribes, religious liberty in the colonies, and many others.
I can’t recommend it highly enough – for audiences of all ages. To enjoy it, you don’t even have to watch it in long stretches, with a winter storm raging outside, though the experience did bring poignancy to the Valley Forge episode.
Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation