History WesternAnimation / LibertysKids

** Captain John Paul Jones is a huge fan of Benjamin Franklin, even naming his ship ''Le Bon Richard'' after "Poor Richard's Almanac". When his crew rescues a shipwrecked Sarah, he's delighted to have one of Ben's newspaper correspondents on his ship. Sarah later explains her reasons for quitting, and John Paul sympathetically tells her that eventually she'll have to make a choice on how she wants to live with the horrors that she's seen.

* PyrrhicVictory: John Paul Jones succeeds in catching a British ship with valuable supplies, but at the cost of losing his beloved ''Le Bon Richard''. He mourns her as she sinks.

* ThreeAmigos: James, Sarah, and Henri.

* MagicalNegro: Moses.
** To be fair, it's not as if Moses and other black people had a choice but to be this. [[ValuesDissonance It was the 18th century.]] Just being friendly with white people [[WhereDaWhiteWomenAt (specifically, a teenaged white ''girl'')]] was pushing the envelope of society's tolerance. It's lucky he wasn't lynched on the spot at that slave auction as a buyer. Had he been an AngryBlackManStereotype or a MalcolmXerox, he wouldn't have lasted long. Real-life characters like James Armistead and Elizabeth Freeman are evidence of this.
*** There actually were black slave owners in the South (the first slave owner in the 13 colonies ever was a black man owning another black man), including former slaves that went on to own slaves themselves, so Moses wouldn't necessarily have stood out for being black but more for being not from there.

* ShownTheirWork: Some elements of PoliticallyCorrectHistory aside, the show is a rather insightful look into its time period and gives several facts about its prominent figures that most U.S. history books would leave out.

** Lafayette is also one, even as he's exposes to the horrors of war. He comes to aid the States at a great personal cost because he believes in the ideals of freedom and hopes to bring the same to France.

** Sarah and James to James Madison when they're not allowed to cover the Constitutional Congress as part of the press. He jokes that he wants the historians to read ''his'' notes and Franklin insists that the politicians need to focus, but they have a point in that great changes will be coming to the country.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: Washington gets one of these, in a sense. He owned slaves, but only one of his slaves is ever shown, and he refers to Washington as "sir" rather than "master." His views on slavery were never made public, though he did support the abolition efforts of Lafayette and Laurens, and was the only founding father to free all of his slaves in his will. Nonetheless, as a younger man, he was of the same mind toward slavery as any other southern property owner. The subject of Washington as a slaveholder is never touched in the show.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: Although Jefferson is revealed as a slaveowner and Sarah calls him out for it, the show had to leave out his relationship with the young slave Sally Hemmings and the children he fathered with her, for [[MayDecemberRomance obvious reasons]].
** Granted, said relationship hadn't begun at that point, as Sally was a young child at the time.
** Washington also gets one of these, in a sense. He owned slaves, but only one of his slaves is ever shown, and he refers to Washington as "sir" rather than "master." His views on slavery were never made public, though he did support the abolition efforts of Lafayette and Laurens, and was the only founding father to free all of his slaves in his will. Nonetheless, as a younger man, he was of the same mind toward slavery as any other southern property owner. The subject of Washington as a slaveholder is never touched in the show.

-->''"I'm hoping and praying for a brighter day''\\

Although the series was created for a juvenile audience (ages 7 to 14), it nevertheless takes a surprisingly sophisticated and nuanced look at the American Revolution -- something that was and still is rarely seen both in children's media and in the average United States classroom -- not just highlighting the heroes and achievements of the independence movement, but also addressing the less palatable aspects such as the role of slavery, mob violence and the privations that Native Americans suffered in this conflict. As a result, ''Liberty's Kids'' remains just as powerful a show more than twenty years since it first aired. Plus, that theme song is just so catchy. It's been bounced from PBS to syndication to online streaming platforms, with availability having been affected accordingly.

->''"[[ComingOfAgeStory I'm lookin' at life through my own eyes]]''\\

''[[GreyAndGrayMorality Feeling the pain as innocence dies]]''\\

* YouGotSpunk: James is impressed that Sarah chews out General Washington for returning slaves to their owners.

* InnocentCohabitation: The only reason it's okay for Sarah to be living with three males.
** One of them black. Along with every inn and house they stayed at on their travels.

''[[GrayAndGrayMorality Feeling the pain as innocence dies]]''\\

** To be fair, it's not as if Moses and other black people had a choice but to be this. [[ValuesDissonance It was the 18th century.]] Just being friendly with white people [[WhereDaWhiteWomenAt (specifically, a teenaged white ''girl'')]] was pushing the envelope of society's tolerance. It's lucky he wasn't lynched on the spot at that slave auction as a buyer. Had he been an AngryBlackMan or a MalcolmXerox, he wouldn't have lasted long. Real-life characters like James Armistead and Elizabeth Freeman are evidence of this.

''Searchin' for a hero to idolize''\\

* RecursiveCanon: One of the "Then and Now" segments talks about spending an evening at home. "Now" a kid is seen watching TV in his room. The show we hear playing is none other than ''Liberty's Kids''!

Although the series was created for a juvenile audience (ages 7 to 14), it nevertheless takes a surprisingly sophisticated and nuanced look at the American Revolution -- something that was and still is rarely seen both in children's media and in the average United States classroom -- not just highlighting the heroes and achievements of the independence movement, but also addressing the less palatable aspects such as the role of slavery, mob violence and the privations that Native Americans suffered in this conflict. As a result, ''Liberty's Kids'' remains just as powerful a show more than a decade and a half since it first aired. Plus, that theme song is just so catchy. It's been bounced from PBS to syndication to online streaming platforms, with availability having been affected accordingly.

* AdultFear:
** Sarah's parents are separated due to her father being in the American wilderness, and her mother sends her abroad on the eve of revolution. Her mother doesn't even know that Sarah's ship was targeted during the Boston Tea Party.
** Moses's reaction when he sees his brother Cato at a slave auction, and [[ShaggyDogStory fails to buy him or rescue him from the slave plantation he's sold to]]. Then years later, they reunite briefly when Cato is on the run, and Moses has to send him to Canada with a Loyalist woman.
** A father and his son are unlawfully executed for being Native American, and the last scene is the father taking his son's hands and comforting him.
** The sheer amount of brutality and cruel actions that both the revolutionaries and the British commit without retribution; Sarah tends to notice this more than James does.

''Liberty's Kids'' (2002-2003) is a Creator/{{PBS}} {{Edutainment}} HistoricalFiction series produced by Creator/DICEntertainment. The series follows the events of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution, from the Boston Tea Party in 1773 to the signing of the US Constitution in 1787, through the lens of three children (and their caretaker) whom are in the employ of Creator/BenjaminFranklin's newspaper and publishing business. The major characters are:

--> -- '''Opening theme song'''

** Washington also gets one of these, in a sense. He owned slaves, but only one of his slaves is ever shown, and he refers to Washington as "sir" rather than "master." His views on slavery were never made public, though he did support the abolition efforts of Lafayette and Laurens, and was the only founding father to free all of his slaves. Nonetheless, as a younger man, he was of the same mind toward slavery as any other southern property owner. The subject of Washington as a slaveholder is never touched in the show.

* WeHardlyKnewYe: Cousin Tom.

* FiveManBand:
** TheHero: James
** TheLancer: Henri/Sarah. Henri acts more like a Lancer, but Sarah serves this function more in the plot, acting as a backup reporter to James.
** TheSmartGuy / TheMentor: Benjamin Franklin
** TheBigGuy: Moses
** TheChick: Sarah

* {{Eagleland}}: Call it America's birth story. This is also why the show has suffered through NoExportForYou in several countries.
* RomanticismVersusEnlightenment: The American and French Revolutions are firmly on the enlightenment side. Sarah Phillips is much more Romanticist in her values.

* RealityEnsues: The SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome of an innocent man getting subjected to TarAndFeathers, the show intentionally undermining the seriousness of it until James comes to mockingly interview the man and finding him near-death instead. The tar is boiled so the feathers (and underlying clothes) stick [[BodyHorror to the victim's skin]], which results in having to peel and tear the skin layer off to remove any of it. The doctor present even specifies that the risk of infection from such severe injuries is so high that it already settled in, meaning the victim is likely to die in the near-future, and to top it all off, the salty tears of pain trigger the burns and removed skin enough to make the man continuously cry in a never-ending cycle of agony. [[CharacterDevelopment James takes all of this to solemn heart.]]