Liberty's Kids

- Season 1

(2002)

When Moses, James and Henri come to Boston pick up Sarah, they find themselves involved in the famous tax protest.

Needing to escape occupied Boston, the kids can't stay out of trouble during the British crackdown imposed after the Boston Tea Party.

Sarah and Henri deliver a letter to Abigal Adams, while James learns some hard lessons about patriotic sounding mob brutality while covering the first Continental Congress.

While on a business trip to Virginia, the gang find Moses' brother enslaved and Moses resolves to free him.

Paul Revere and William Dawes spread the word that the "British are coming!" on the eve of "the shot heard 'round the world."

The Revolutionary War begins with the battles of Lexington and Concord.

Trouble erupts in the New Hampshire Grants when settlers are forced from their homes (1770-1775).

The colonies decide they need a national army.

The first major battle of the war.

Ben Franklin is named the first Postmaster General of the colonies (7/26/75).

George Washington arrives in Boston to take command of the army (7/3/75).

The kids meet the hot headed idealist, Tom Paine, whose popular anti-monarchist pamphlet, "Common Sense," popularizes the idea of colonial independence.

James learns about the power of political rhetoric as the motion to declare independence comes to a vote in the Continental Congress.

At the Battle of Long Island, Washington fights the British in open field battles -- with catastrophic results (8/27-29/76).

The first attempt to sink a ship with a submarine fails (9/6/76).

A failed peace conference between the British Admiral Howe and John Adams and Ben Franklin convinces the American leaders that the British have no interest in making peace (9/11/76).

Ben Franklin, appointed to a commission to negotiate a treaty with the French, sails for France aboard the Reprisal (10/24/76).

The low point of the war for the Americans has arrived and General Washington calls upon Thomas Paine to put the times in perspective.

To prevent ultimate defeat, Washington and his forces cross the Delaware River for a daring attack on Christmas Day.

Ben Franklin sets up residence in Paris and begins his uphill battle to enlist France in the American cause (12/28/76).

Sixteen-year-old Sybil Ludington makes her own "midnight ride" in Westchester County, New York (4/26/77).

The 19-year-old Marquis de Lafayette arrives after an eventful journey from France and offers his services to Congress (7/27/77).

While General Horatio Gates battles Burgoyne at the Battle of Saratoga, James is captured by British and Hessian forces as a spy.

James, Sarah and Henri are there as George Washington and his Continental Army endure a horrible winter at Valley Forge while Baron von Steuben arrives to train Washington's men into a proper fighting force.

News of the American victory at Saratoga helps pave the way for Ben Franklin to negotiate a treaty with France.

The States struggle to unite politically before the arrival of the French Ambassador (5/9/78-7/8/78).

In the Ohio territory, Shawnee Chief Cornstalk and his people are caught between the Americans and the British, with tragic results (11/77).

In a long, desperate battle, John Paul Jones and his wildly outgunned Bonhomme Richard defeat the British Serapis off the coast of England (9/23/79).

Spanish Governor Bernardo de Galvez aides the American cause by capturing Baton Rouge (9/21/79), Natchez (10/5/79) and Mobile (3/13/80) from the British.

Sarah returns to Philadelphia and is reunited with her friends just in time to help them explain to a boy the character and accomplishments of Benjamin Franklin.

Sarah and Henri join the Adams family in Massachusetts just as John and his son John Quincy return from France and are reunited with Abigail (8/2/79).

James, Sarah and Henri are there when Arnold tries to hand West Point over to British (9/21/80).

General Nathanael Greene replaces Horatio Gates as the American commander in the south (10/16/80).

Deborah Samson masquerades as a man so she can enlist in the Continental army (5/20/1782-10/23/83).

Virginia slave James Armistead joins Lafayette and spies on Benedict Arnold (3/81).

The climatic battle of the war.

Massachusetts slave "Mum Bett" sues for her freedom (5/28/1781).

Ben Franklin and John Adams sign the peace treaty with England, ending the Revolutionary War, but General Washington must thwart a potential uprising by his frustrated officers.

With the signing of the Treaty of Paris, loyalists are forced to leave their homes.

With the new nation falling apart under the Articles of Confederation, America's leaders meet at a convention in Philadelphia and decide to write a radical new Constitution.