Hero or Villain?Faces from American History

VILLAIN

• Benedict Arnold• American general who

betrayed information to the British during the Revolutionary War

• Did it for money

HERO

• Geronimo, of the Apache tribe

• Defended his people’s land against unfair U.S. Army takeovers

• The Apaches, after many years, lost the struggle; but Geronimo is remembered as a great leader

HERO

• Audie Murphy

• The most decorated soldier in World War II

• Got 27 medals for his brave actions in combat, including holding off a platoon of Germans completely by himself

VILLAIN

• John Wilkes Booth

• Shot President Lincoln in the back of the head

• Booth believed that the South should win the Civil War and hoped to hurt the North by killing the president

HERO

• Harriet Tubman

• Escaped to freedom in the North, but risked her freedom and her life to go back into the South and guide slaves on the Underground Railroad

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f0/Rickey.jpg

HERO

• Branch Rickey• Manager of the Brooklyn

Dodgers in the 1940s; signed Jackie Robinson to play, the first African-American hired to play in Major League Baseball

VILLAIN

• Warren Harding

• 29th president of the US (1921- 1923)

• Put many of his friends in important positions, and then did not pay attention as they stole and cheated the government

Christopher Columbus

• What do you know about Christopher Columbus? Discuss who he was, what he did, how he is honored and whether or not he is a hero or a villain.