Why Liberty Matters: The American Revolution

Activity Time

For this activity, you will need a group of friends.

• Grab an even amount and split up into two teams. You are going to play the game, Red Rover. If you do not know how to play, the rules will be placed below.
  Red Rover is a team game, so you will need at least three people on each team to play. The more people you can get to join your game of Red Rover, the more fun you will have.
• Pick a captain for each team. The team captains can then flip a coin to determine who gets the first pick.
• Divide the players into two equal teams. The captains can take turns picking players until everyone has a team.
• Have each team stand in a straight line, holding hands. The teams will face each other, standing between six and ten yards apart. The further apart the teams are, the more distance players have to pick up speed before they reach the other team’s line. It’s a good idea to keep the distance between teams smaller for younger children to lower the chance of injuries.
• Call a player over. The team that goes first decides who to “call over” from the other team. Once the team has decided, they sing, “Red Rover, Red Rover, will (name) come over!”
• The player who was called runs across the space between teams and tries to break through the arms of two players.
• If the player doesn’t get through the line, they join the opposing team. However, if they break through, they go back to their own team. They can take one of the players whose arms they broke through with them.
• Continue playing until one team is down to one person.

As we learned from Liberty, the Hessians were German troops hired by the British to help them fight during the American Revolution. On the night George Washington and his Army crossed the Delaware River to make the surprise attack, the Hessian army was unprepared (You running through your friend’s hands unexpectedly trying to get through). Washington and his army captured around 1,000 Hessian soldiers. The captured soldiers were brought to Philadelphia to work as farmhands (breaking through your friend’s hands and taking them back to your team). There were many times that the Continental army tried to recruit the Hessian soldiers by offering them land to switch sides. The Germans were treated well during their time in Pennsylvania and eventually decided to become permanent settlers in America.

Communities from Europe and Africa moved to the original 13 colonies and created new communities there. Some of these people were there for religious reasons, others for financial and business reasons, and sadly, some were even there against their will.