50 Fun Facts About Liberty's Kids

Which veteran CBS News anchorman voiced Benjamin Franklin and read the news recaps in Liberty's Kids?

Walter Cronkite earned two Daytime Emmy nominations for the part and closed each episode's Liberty News Network recap with his familiar newsroom sign-off.

In the Liberty's Kids episode The Turtle, what kind of craft does David Bushnell send against a British warship?

A submarine made of oak and cranked by hand, the Turtle failed to fix its bomb to HMS Eagle in 1776 but was the first of its kind with a documented record of use in combat.

Which action star voiced Baron von Steuben, the Prussian officer who drills Washington's troops, in Liberty's Kids?

Arnold Schwarzenegger took the role a year before he was elected governor of California; the real von Steuben wrote the drill manual the army used for decades.

In the first Liberty's Kids episode, Sam Adams leads men disguised as which Native people aboard a tea ship in Boston?

Mohawk dress hid the raiders' faces and was a deliberate symbol; Sarah had just reached Boston aboard the very ship they boarded, the Dartmouth.

Which Benjamin Franklin invention does James Hiller of Liberty's Kids admire, having lost his parents in a fire?

The lightning rod matters to James because the fire that killed his parents when he was an infant was started by a lightning strike.

Which billionaire investor voiced James Madison in the final episode of Liberty's Kids?

Warren Buffett was among the show's unlikeliest guest voices, alongside General Norman Schwarzkopf, who played frontier commander George Rogers Clark.

In Liberty's Kids, Benjamin Franklin's print shop, where James and Moses work, stands in which colonial city?

Philadelphia had passed Boston by the 1750s to become the largest city and busiest port in British America, and it hosted the Continental Congress the young reporters cover.

In the Liberty's Kids episode The First Fourth of July, Sarah goes through which delegate's trash?

Thomas Jefferson, voiced by Ben Stiller, was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence and, at 33, one of the youngest delegates in Congress.

Which American broadcaster first aired the cartoon Liberty's Kids from September 2002 to April 2003?

PBS ran all 40 episodes on its children's service, and the series later resurfaced on a CBS children's block and as Independence Day marathons on cable.

Which captain, voiced by Liam Neeson, rescues Sarah at sea in the Liberty's Kids episode Not Yet Begun to Fight?

John Paul Jones commands the Bonhomme Richard, a frigate named for Benjamin Franklin, and in the middle of its battle he helps Sarah see that her loyalty lies with America.

In Liberty's Kids, Sarah Phillips sails to America to find her father, last heard exploring which frontier region?

Ohio was where Major Phillips was last heard of, and Sarah does not find him there until the twenty-seventh of the forty episodes.

In Liberty's Kids, how did Moses, who works in Benjamin Franklin's print shop, win his freedom from slavery?

Buying it himself took ingenuity: Moses learned to read and to forge metal, and he must still carry papers proving he is a free man.

Which Boston poet shelters Sarah, James and Henri overnight after the tea raid in the first Liberty's Kids episode?

Phillis Wheatley, brought from West Africa and enslaved as a child, had just become the first African-American author of a published book of poetry, printed in London in 1773.

The second Liberty's Kids episode is named for which British laws that punished Massachusetts after the tea protest?

The Intolerable Acts were five punitive laws of 1774; in the episode British troops move into Boston homes while James and Henri plaster the town with protest posters.

In the Liberty's Kids episode United We Stand, a mob punishes a British sailor in front of James with what?

Tar and feathers were a favourite mob punishment for customs men, and seeing them used backs up John Adams's warning to James about patriots and mob rule.

Which Virginia orator, voiced by Michael Douglas in Liberty's Kids, gives a famous speech in a Richmond church?

Patrick Henry was urging Virginia to raise a militia independent of royal authority, and a year later he became the state's first governor after independence.

In the Liberty's Kids episode Midnight Ride, which tanner rides out by land with the same warning as Paul Revere?

William Dawes slipped out over Boston Neck just before the British sealed the town, yet a famous poem about that night gave all the credit to Revere.

In Liberty's Kids, James stands with Captain John Parker's militia as it faces the redcoats in which town?

Lexington saw the war's first shots at sunrise on April 19, 1775, when about 80 militiamen stood on the common and eight of them were killed.

Which leader of the Green Mountain Boys kidnaps the reporters in Liberty's Kids before seizing Fort Ticonderoga?

Ethan Allen took the fort in May 1775 alongside Benedict Arnold, who was then still fighting for the Patriots, and he is remembered as one of the founders of Vermont.

Which Hollywood action star voiced silversmith Paul Revere in the Liberty's Kids episode Midnight Ride?

Sylvester Stallone played a rider who, in real life, was intercepted by a British patrol that night, questioned and then set free.

Which comedian and nine-time Oscars host voiced John Adams in the cartoon Liberty's Kids?

Billy Crystal's Adams clashes with James in an early episode over his decision to defend the British soldiers tried for the Boston Massacre.

Which Oscar-winning star of Ghost voiced Deborah Samson, who enlisted disguised as a man, in Liberty's Kids?

Whoopi Goldberg's character spent 17 months in uniform as Robert Shurtleff before a fever, and the doctor who treated it, gave her secret away.

Which star of Rain Man and Tootsie voiced the turncoat general Benedict Arnold in Liberty's Kids?

Dustin Hoffman's Arnold spends most of the series as a battlefield hero and a friend of Sarah, which is why his unmasking in a late episode hits her so hard.

Which teen pop singer performed the Liberty's Kids theme song and voiced soldier Joseph Plumb Martin?

Aaron Carter sang the theme, Through My Own Eyes, as a duet with Kayla Hinkle, and the real Martin's memoir of life as a private is prized by historians.

Which French nobleman, almost a father to young Henri, takes him home to France at the end of Liberty's Kids?

Lafayette was made an American major general at 19 and was wounded at Brandywine soon afterwards; the series implies that he adopts the orphaned Henri.

Which Thomas Paine pamphlet does Sarah refuse to read when Franklin's shop prints it in Liberty's Kids?

Common Sense came out anonymously in January 1776 and sold so widely that, within months, open talk of independence had spread through the colonies.

In the tenth episode of Liberty's Kids, the Second Continental Congress appoints Benjamin Franklin to which office?

Postmaster General made Franklin the first head of the new United States Post Office; in the episode the gang has just caught the Royal Mail seizing colonists' letters.

In Liberty's Kids, Sarah searches the British camp for Lieutenant Hampton after which costly battle near Boston?

Bunker Hill was a British victory that cost them more than 1,000 casualties, and most of the fighting really took place on neighbouring Breed's Hill.

Which young teacher turned American spy do the reporters see hanged by the British in Liberty's Kids?

Nathan Hale was 21 and had crossed to Long Island posing as a Dutch schoolmaster looking for work; statues of him are guesswork, since no portrait from his lifetime has been found.

In Liberty's Kids, James crosses an icy river with Washington to surprise Hessian troops in which New Jersey town?

Trenton fell on the morning after Christmas 1776 with almost two-thirds of its Hessian garrison captured, a win that inspired weary soldiers to re-enlist.

In the Liberty's Kids episode An American in Paris, which disease does Sarah catch in Boston and survive?

Smallpox was such a threat to the army that Washington had his troops inoculated in 1777; in the episode Abigail Adams nurses Sarah back to health.

Which young artillery captain does James meet in the Liberty's Kids episode An American in Paris?

Alexander Hamilton had raised a New York artillery company and been appointed its captain in 1776, and he went on to spend four years as Washington's aide-de-camp.

In Liberty's Kids, soldier Joseph Plumb Martin and his comrades suffer through a hungry winter at which army camp?

Valley Forge saw no battle, yet an estimated 1,700 to 2,000 soldiers died there of disease during the six-month encampment.

In Liberty's Kids, James is tied to a Hessian deserter while witnessing which American victory of 1777?

Saratoga ended with a whole British army laying down its arms, and the news persuaded France to enter the war as an American ally.

In Liberty's Kids, a captured British spy carries plans of which Hudson River stronghold, exposing Benedict Arnold?

West Point was Arnold's own command, and the British had promised him £20,000 for its capture; Washington called it the most important post in America.

James and Sarah witness which 1781 siege in Virginia, the last major land battle of the war, in Liberty's Kids?

Yorktown ended with more than 7,000 British troops taken prisoner, and Cornwallis stayed away from the surrender ceremony, claiming that he was ill.

The final Liberty's Kids episode, We the People, takes its title from the opening words of which document?

The Constitution was written in secret, with the meeting hall's windows nailed shut in the summer heat, which is why James and Sarah struggle to learn what is going on.

In the final episode of Liberty's Kids, what does former slave Moses open for African American children?

A school had been the plan Moses confided to only two trusted friends: to teach free Black children so that everyone might one day be free.

Which Shawnee chief does Sarah meet, along with her long-lost father, in the Liberty's Kids episode The New Frontier?

Cornstalk had led the Shawnee at the Battle of Point Pleasant in 1774, and he died a prisoner at an American fort he had visited as a diplomat.

Which Boston bookseller turned colonel does James join hauling cannon from Fort Ticonderoga in Liberty's Kids?

Henry Knox moved some 60 tons of guns about 300 miles over three winter months, and he later became the nation's first secretary of war.

In Liberty's Kids, which woman takes over her fallen husband's cannon during the British attack on Fort Washington?

Margaret Corbin kept the gun firing until she was badly wounded, and she became the first woman to receive a military pension from Congress.

Which teenager, shown in Liberty's Kids as a female Paul Revere, rides all night to rouse her father's militia?

Sybil Ludington is said to have ridden 40 miles at 16 after the British raided Danbury, though the tale was printed generations later and many scholars doubt it.

Which Delaware delegate, rounded up by James in Liberty's Kids, rode through a stormy night to vote for independence?

Caesar Rodney rode 70 miles through a thunderstorm to break a deadlock in his delegation, a dash later pictured on his state's commemorative quarter.

Which enslaved Virginian does Sarah meet working as a double agent inside the British camp in Liberty's Kids?

James Armistead fed the British false information while passing accurate reports to the Patriots, yet he had to petition Virginia's assembly to gain his own freedom in 1787.

In Liberty's Kids, which enslaved woman, voiced by Yolanda King, sues for her freedom in Massachusetts and wins?

Mum Bett sued in 1781 after hearing her state's new declaration that all men are born free and equal, and history also remembers her as Elizabeth Freeman.

Which Spanish governor of Louisiana, namesake of a Texas port city, does James meet on campaign in Liberty's Kids?

Bernardo de Gálvez helped frustrate British operations on the Gulf Coast, gave Galveston its name, and in 2014 was made an honorary citizen of the United States.

In the Liberty's Kids episode The Second Continental Congress, a British spy poses as what to coax secrets from James?

A newspaper owner was the cover chosen by Paul Wentworth, a real British intelligence agent, who wants the boys to reveal what is said in the closed sessions.

Continental Cartoons, a guessing game segment in each Liberty's Kids episode, set viewers which kind of word puzzle?

A rebus spells out words with pictures and letters; the show's other regular features included a mystery guest to identify and a look at life then and now.

Which Iroquois leader shows James what the war has cost Native Americans in the Liberty's Kids episode Bostonians?

Joseph Brant met both George Washington and King George III in his lifetime, and after the war he resettled with many of his people in what is now Ontario.

Which French king grants Benjamin Franklin an audience in the Liberty's Kids episode Allies at Last?

Louis XVI had his delegates sign the alliance with the United States in February 1778, and fifteen years later he was tried for treason and guillotined.