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
HERO
• Branch Rickey
• Manager of the Brooklyn
Dodgers in the 1940s;
signed Jackie Robinson
to play, the first AfricanAmerican 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.