CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

Featuring stories and songs about Thomas Edison, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Benjamin Franklin and Pocahontas, this concert continues Jonathan's theme of introducing children to great Americans using his instructive, fun and interactive style. Stunning 30” by 40” photographs of each of the heroes flank Mr. Sprout’s elaborate stage sound system. The concert concludes with the inspiring "Heroes" song.

Click Photo for Video

THOMAS EDISON (1847-1931), often called the greatest inventor who ever lived, patented over 1,000 inventions. These included the motion-picture projector, the phonograph and the electric light bulb. Though he completed only three months of schooling, he loved to read. It was his powerful imagination, his firm optimism and his complete self-confidence that enabled him to spend long hours inventing things that would make life better for all of humanity.

Song: "The Light Went On" (from the American Heroes CD)

HARRIET TUBMAN (1820?-1913) was born a slave near Bucktown, MD. At about the age of twenty-nine she escaped to the North. Before the outbreak of the Civil War she made nineteen journeys back to lead other slaves - including her own parents and most of her brothers and sisters - to freedom along the secret route known at the Underground Railroad.
Slave owners were constantly on the lookout for Tubman and offered large rewards for her capture, but they never succeeded in seizing her or any of the slaves she helped escape. She helped so many blacks escape to freedom that she became known as the "Moses of her people."

Song: "Take A Ride" (from the American Heroes CD)

FREDERICK DOUGLASS (1818-95) escaped the master’s whip at the age of 20 when he fled North, disguised as a sailor. As a strong voice for civil rights, his lecturing and reasoning were so impressive that opponents refused to believe he had been a slave. A beacon of morality whose vision transcended race and gender, he wrote books and published a newspaper discussing both the evils of slavery and the rights of women.

Song: "Agitate" (from the More American Heroes CD)

Few people have done as much for the world as BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1706-1790). Although he was always proud to call himself a printer, Franklin was also a diplomat, a scientist, an inventor, a philosopher, an educator, an author, and a public servant.
In Europe, Benjamin Franklin was the most famous American of his time. It was he who persuaded the English to repeal the hated Stamp Act. It was also he who convinced the French to aid in the American Revolution. Franklin helped draft both the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution.

Song: "Ben Franklin" (from the American Heroes CD)

POCAHONTAS(1595?–1617) was a legendary Native American princess who, at the age of about eleven, may have saved the life of English explorer Captain John Smith. She was a brave, compassionate girl who later helped the colonists by bringing them food. Without her, Smith claimed, the English would not have survived. She inspired a rare peace between two nations with her vision of cooperation between the European settlers and her own people. Distinguished ambassador, peacemaker and trusted friend, her legacy lives on with the survival of a colony that led to the birth of a nation.

Song: "Pocahontas" (from the American Heroes #3 CD)