Understanding American History

This column was written by CBS News Early Show Co-AnchorHarry Smith.

(Click here to listen to MP3 of Harry Smith's commentary.)

Dressed in their three-cornered hats and colonial finery I watched in awe as my son and his friends sang their way to a fundamental understanding of American history. The play shows the stubborn John Adams, the brilliant Ben Franklin and the other key players in Philadelphia that hot summer long ago. They sing of the treason they are about to commit when the founding fathers decide to break free of the tyranny of mother England. What did Franklin say -- we must hang together or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.

Slavery plays an important role in the play too. The section of the declaration calling for the abolishment of human property must be struck in order to get all the states to sign it.

And at the end of the show as the chorus sing, the signers are called to put their names on the declaration, I blubbered. Jefferson. Hancock. The tears flowed and I felt anew, as I feel so often, that we who live here have been given an undeniable gift.

More important though, was the sense I had that all those fifth graders on stage understood the story; understood the risk and courage required to break free. They understood that the founding fathers had to argue and talk their way to consensus. They had to find a new truth. A truth they could believe in. And be willing to die for.

By Harry Smith
By Harry Smith