Meet The Ameritales Crew
Learn About the Origin Stories of America’s Real-Life Superheroes.
Abe Lincoln
Abe Lincoln
“Wordsmith and Rapper”
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart
“Aviator and Fly Girl”
Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson
“Super Jock”
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton
“Revolutionary”
Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison
“Tech Wiz”
Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull
“Warrior”
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman
“Freedom Fighter”
Clara Barton
Clara Barton
“Healer and Angel of the Battlefield”
Cesar Chavez
Cesar Chavez
“Crusader”
Give us your Ideas!
What characters from American History would like to see become an AmeriTales Superhero?
Super Powers:
Rapping, Storytelling, Speechifying and Joking, Ax Master
Nemesis:
Father Thomas Lincoln, Poverty, The Little Giant, Jefferson Davis, The Confederates
Related Characters:
Joshua Speed, Dennis Hanks, Sarah Lincoln, Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, Ulysses S. Grant, Harriet Beecher Stowe
Abraham Lincoln – Wordsmith and Rapper
Amelia Earhart – Aviator and Fly Girl
A brash show boater even as a child, Amelia was flying high in her homemade roller coaster before she became a super star aviator. Despite being raised in a proper Victorian setting where men dominated, Amelia enjoyed pursuits considered inappropriate for girls such as hunting rats, riding sleds belly flop, climbing trees and collecting insects and frogs. She broke all the rules, playing baseball and football with the boys; something frowned upon by polite society. To the consternation of her grandmother, she was a free spirited, bloomer-wearing tomboy. Amelia had to battle societal roadblocks for women, especially male pilots, who believed women couldn’t and shouldn’t fly, to achieve her fantasy of flying high into the clouds.
After taking her first plane ride Amelia was hooked on flying and quickly trained to become a superhero aviator. She stormed across the skies in a rickety open-cockpit airplane. Amelia and other rebel female flyers competed in air races and performed daredevil air theatrics, stunning crowds and the media. In the Powder Puff Air Derby of 1929, the Super Bowl of its time, thousands of fans watched Amelia and other Fly Girls compete. This scrappy squad of flyers was determined to change the face of flying. Amelia became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Later she became the first person to fly solo from the Hawaiian Islands to the U.S. mainland. Amelia and these spunky aviation trailblazers defied the gender limitations of their time period and helped women pursue happiness in fields that had been shut out to them, transforming societal attitudes about women.
Super Power:
Flying, Valor, Endurance, Self-Confidence
Nemesis:
Grandma Otis, Societal Sexism, Male Pilots
Related Characters:
Sister Pidge, Father Edwin Earhart, Neta Snooks, Bessie Coleman, The Fly Girls
Super Powers:
Athleticism, Social Activism, Guts, Peak Agility
Nemesis:
Neighbors Societal Racism, The Travelers Dodger, Dixie Walker, Philly Manager Joe Chapman, Philadelphia Phillies
Related Characters:
Mallie Robinson, Carl Anderson, Rev Karl Downs, Branch Rickey, Cool Papa Bell, Satchel Paige, Dodger Pee Wee Reese, Dodger Ralph Branca, Kansas City Monarchs, Tiger Hank Greenburg
Jackie Robinson – Super Jock
Growing up in mostly segregated Pasadena, California in the 1930s, Jackie and his family endured daily taunts from their unwelcoming neighbors. Some neighbors even threatened to burn their house down. Excluded from youth league sports and other activities, such as swimming at the YMCA, young and bored Jackie turned to mischief. Jackie banded together with other rejected Hispanic and Asian American boys to form the Pepper Street Gang; a place outside his home where he felt accepted. The gang engaged in youthful shenanigans like throwing dirt clumps at cars and stealing golf balls. They enjoyed making bets with other kids that they could beat them in sports and other games. Little did these kids know they were competing against someone destined to become one of the most powerful athletes in American history.
With the courage and strength modeled by his hard working mother, Jackie was able to turn prejudice into pride and perseverance. He channeled his energy into his love of competition and dominated every sport he played, including America’s pastime, baseball. With blacks and whites playing separately, baseball was the mirror image of much of the country until Jackie changed this. He became the first African American to play Major League Baseball, shattering a division in American Society and paving the way for black athletes to enter professional sports. Overcoming his many antagonistic foes with his super powers of athleticism and grit, Jackie became a baseball star. His influence evolved the sport from the home run-dominated era into a game where speed was a strategic weapon. Importantly, Jackie used his super jock status as a platform to battle for social progress in America.
Alexander Hamilton – Revolutionary
Alexander Hamilton’s childhood in the Caribbean island of St. Croix was an uphill battle. He and his brother endured the taunts of other children, and the stares and whispers of adults who labeled them, “obscene children” because their parents were not officially married, something considered highly disgraceful in the 1700s. When he was eleven, Alexander’s father abandoned the family leaving them destitute and forcing him to get a job. Two years later he was an orphan upon the death of his mother. He and his brother were left penniless and homeless with no apparent future. Alexander turned to a squad of benefactors who were impressed with his fortitude and work ethic. These benefactors sponsored Alexander’s trip to America to get a formal education.
Growing up without the wealth and status of his schoolmates, Alexander vigorously applied himself to his studies. However, in the wake of the Boston Tea Party, he dropped out of school to join the American fight for freedom in the Revolutionary War. During the war he developed super powers as an influential writer, military prodigy and financial whiz. Alexander received a commission as a captain in a New York Artillery company. Later he served as an infantry commander and sidekick to General Washington. Alexander became a pivotal power in the battle for independence. After the war was won, he was renowned as a delegate at the Constitutional Convention, writer of most of The Federalist Papers, first Secretary of the Treasury and mastermind of the national banking system. Alexander’s arsenal of powers helped establish a fledgling America as a world super power.
Super Powers:
Writing, Military Mastery, Number Wiz
Nemesis:
Societal Xenophobia, The Tories, The Redcoats, Aaron Burr
Related Characters:
Crispus Attucks, George Washington, Phyllis Wheatley, Thomas Jefferson, Marquis de Lafayette
Super Powers:
Curiosity, Experimentation, Invention Skill, Illumination
Nemesis:
Teacher Rev. G.B. Engle, Schoolmasters, Schoolmates
Related Characters:
Nancy Edison, Nikola Tesla, Alexander Graham Bell, Lewis Howard Latimer, Henry Ford, Margaret Knight, George Westinghouse, The Muckers, The Witch of Wall Street
Thomas Edison – Tech Wiz
Laughed at, made fun of and generally scorned by teachers because of his endless questioning and boundless energy, Thomas did not fare well in school. His teachers considered him “slow witted” and disruptive and as a consequence he was whipped and forced to sit in the corner wearing a dunce cap. His mother, Nancy Edison, decided to home school him and brought Thomas to the stage of learning things for himself. With his voracious appetite for reading and experimenting, Thomas was finally able to study things that mused and interested him. After reading his first science book, the budding scientist created his own chemical laboratory in the cellar of his home and set about performing every experiment in the book.
At age twelve, Thomas persuaded his parents to let him take a job as a newsboy and candy butcher on the railroad. After leaping in front of a barreling freight train to rescue a small child playing on the tracks, the child’s grateful father rewarded Thomas by teaching him the new science of telegraphy. Telegraphy was the Internet of Thomas’ day and learning it opened up the world of electricity to him. This began a lifelong quest of experimentation and discovery leading to the development of one of the world’s greatest inventions, a long lasting light bulb which flipped the switch to the electric era. Thomas’ other notable inventions included the phonograph, movie camera and an electric power station. With a team of researchers and engineers, known as Muckers, as sidekicks, Thomas became the Wizard of Menlo Park with over a thousand patents and gadgets.
Sitting Bull – Warrior
Young Slow was ashamed of his name. He was nicknamed Slow because his parents saw nothing remarkable about him and for his slow nature. Kids made fun of him when playing boyhood games. Young Slow was anxious to prove himself worthy of a great name like his father, Jumping Bull, a brave warrior. Every young Sioux wanted an opportunity to prove his bravery. When the enemy Crow tribe stole some of their horses, Slow leaped into the fray joining his first war party to recapture the horses. After striking a Crow warrior with a coup stick, Slow earned a measure of esteem as a courageous warrior. Once the successful raiders returned home, Slow’s father held a celebratory feast and renamed him ‘Buffalo Bull Who Sits Down’ abbreviated to ‘Sitting Bull’.
Sitting Bull’s courageous spirit grew; as a young teen he was chosen to lead the Strong Heart Warrior Society. Later he was appointed chief of the Sioux nation. Sitting Bull was a valiant chief who helped extend the Sioux hunting grounds and protected his people. The Sioux were able to live largely in peace until gold was discovered in the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory, land sacred to them. The United States Calvary started invading Sioux lands in breach of treaties. Sitting Bull fought against the Calvary for violating the rights of Native Americans. This led to The Great Sioux Wars with battles that culminated in Little Bighorn, when Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse led the united tribes in victory. Sitting Bull rose to become a super warrior, a hero of power and renown among Native Americans who fought valiantly to preserve their land and their way of life.
Super Powers:
Bravery, Riding Master, Combat Skills, Archery
Nemesis:
The Crows, The Flatheads, Gold Miners, General George Custer, The U.S. Calvary
Related Characters:
Jumping Bull, Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, Four Horns, Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley
Super Powers:
Courage, Disguise Mastery, Shrewdness, Clairvoyance
Nemesis:
Slave Holders, Overseers, The Confederates, President Andrew Johnson
Related Characters:
Frederick Douglas, John Brown, William Lloyd Garrison, William Wells Brown, Abe Lincoln, Ida B. Wells, Susan B. Anthony
Harriet Tubman – Freedom Fighter
In 1827 at the tender age of five instead of starting school, Harriet, born into slavery in Maryland, was seized from her mother and hired out as a nursemaid for a baby. If the baby cried overnight, she was whipped by the baby’s mother leaving lifelong scars on her body. At age seven Harriet was forced to toil in icy marshes collecting muskrats from traps. Still a kid, she labored as a field hand, cook, and woodcutter. When she was twelve, Harriet attempted to block an overseer from flogging another enslaved person. The overseer pushed Harriet into an iron weight causing her to suffer headaches and seizures throughout her life. After hearing whispers that she was going to be sold away from her family, Harriet bravely embarked on a clandestine and perilous trek to freedom, bloodhounds hot on her trail. After successfully reaching freedom in Philadelphia, Harriet made it her mission to fight for the freedom of others. Incredibly, Harriet conducted thirteen increasingly dangerous forays into Maryland to guide dozens of slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad.
Once the Civil War started, Harriet unearthed new super powers, serving as a spy, scout, soldier, and nurse for the Union Army. As a spy, Harriet disguised herself and wandered the streets of the Confederacy to uncover information. She became the first American woman to lead an armed raid into enemy territory guiding the Second South Carolina Black regiment into routing Confederate outposts and destroying stockpiles of cotton, food and weapons, and liberating hundreds of slaves. After the war, Harriet fiercely used her freedom fighting powers to battle for the rights of newly liberated slaves and assist them in transitioning to a life of freedom.
Clara Barton – Healer and Angel of the Battlefield
Painfully shy and with a pronounced lisp, young Clara had difficulty making friends. One day during rote lessons, she mispronounced a word and burst into tears when her classmates laughed at her. From then on Clara often lost her voice when called on by a teacher. Her physical stature also caused her embarrassment; she was much smaller than the other girls. Because of the teasing she endured in school, Clara was home-schooled and then sent to a Boarding School in an effort to cure her crippling shyness, which was considered an abnormality. Boarding school pushed Clara into a state of depression and she stopped eating. Finally, she became so ill the school sent her home. After Clara recovered, her parents had her skull examined by a phrenologist who recommended Clara become a teacher to cure her shyness.
Clara spent her childhood in the 1830s caring for sick and injured animals. So when her big brother fell from the roof of a barn, Clara nursed him back to health just as she had done for many critters. This experience nurtured her super powers as a healer and humanitarian. When the Civil War broke out, Clara took her healing powers to the battlefields. Her work earned her the nickname Angel of the Battlefield. During a trip to Switzerland after the war, Clara learned about the Red Cross, a humanitarian effort to provide aid to those injured in combat. Inspired by this cause, she brought the Red Cross movement to America and expanded its mission to become a humanitarian relief organization for natural disasters as well as aiding wounded soldiers. Clara rose from a shy, sad little girl to a healer with an arsenal of super powers to care for others.
Super Powers:
Healing, Humanitarianism, Empathy
Nemesis:
Sexism, Male Co-workers, President James Buchanan, Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard
Related Characters:
David Barton, Aunt Fanny, President Lincoln, VP Henry Wilson, Colonel Robert Gould, Shaw Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, The Gremke Sisters
Super Powers:
Activism, Leadership, Influencer
Nemesis:
Agri-Businesses, Delano Farms, Growers
Related Characters:
Dolores Huerta, Fred Ross, Phillip Vera Cruz, Larry Itliong, Robert F. Kennedy
Cesar Chavez – Crusader
After losing their farm during the Great Depression, Cesar’s family moved from Arizona to California where his parents toiled in the fields as migrant farm workers. The family roamed around to overcrowded migrant camps resulting in Cesar attending a dozen different schools. While Cesar spoke Spanish at home, Spanish was forbidden in school and if he violated this rule his knuckles were slapped hard with a ruler. Some of the schools were segregated and in the integrated schools Cesar was called names making him feel like a caged monkey. After completing the eighth grade, Cesar dropped out of school to help support his family.
Cesar traveled the migrant circuit throughout California doing backbreaking labor in the fields, orchards and vineyards and enduring the hardships and injustices of farm workers. Migrant farm workers were forced to work around dangerous pesticides. They labored long hours for poverty wages, often with no access to clean water or toilets. But César had a crusading power in him to fight for the just treatment of migrant workers. He organized the National Farm Worker Association (NFWA) to improve the miserable working conditions of migrants. Partnering with other groups, Cesar led a strike by California grape pickers and a nationwide boycott of California grapes. The grape boycott ended in a complete success granting workers better pay, benefits and protections. Later the NFWA merged with another labor rights group and became the United Farm Workers Union (UFW). Through the UFW Cesar continued using his power of activism as a weapon to lead strikes, boycotts, non-violent protests and fasts to help farm workers stand up for their right to truth, justice and the pursuit of happiness.
