ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, August 10, 1996 TAG: 9608120097
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG
SOURCE: Associated Press
Americans don't know much about their Revolution.
What year did the Revolutionary War begin? In which state was the last battle fought? Who wrote the Bill of Rights?
Huh?
Those questions stumped many of the 1,000 adults nationwide who responded to a telephone survey commissioned by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
A majority knew the answers to only four of the nine multiple-choice questions.
``Hopefully, [the results] will make folks sit up and think history is something that we need to know,'' foundation spokeswoman Susan Stuntz said. ``How can you see yourself in the future unless you have the context of what the past was all about?''
Eighty-three percent of the respondents knew there were 13 Colonies at the time of the Revolution, and 90 percent knew the Colonists staged the Boston Tea Party to protest taxes.
But only 35 percent knew the war began in 1775, and just 11 percent correctly identified James Madison as the author of the Bill of Rights. Forty-three percent answered correctly that the last battle was fought in Virginia.
Brian Lincicome, 39, of Philadelphia didn't know most of the answers when a reporter asked him the survey questions at Colonial Williamsburg, the living history museum devoted to the Revolutionary era.
``Can you believe I went to college?'' Lincicome said, laughing. ``And I minored in history.''
Lincicome said he wanted his three young children to understand American history. That's why the family stopped at Williamsburg en route to a vacation in North Carolina.
`It's important to know your heritage,'' he said. ``It's not like I do, but I think it's important.''
Much to their chagrin, Cheryl and Tony Parrish of Bernie, Mo., didn't fare much better when asked the questions at Williamsburg.
``Are you going to tell on us that we didn't know the answers?'' Cheryl Parrish asked, adding that it's important to know history so we don't repeat the mistakes of the past.
The survey was inspired by a national education study last year that found more than half of America's high school seniors don't know basic facts about U.S. history.
``We thought it would be fun to see whether adults fared any better,'' Stuntz said.
Caravan, a survey research firm in Washington, D.C., interviewed a random sample of adults by telephone during the last weekend in June. Historians at Colonial Williamsburg picked the questions.
Test your own history savvy
Participants in the Colonial Williamsburg ``Knowledge of U.S. History'' survey were asked the following multiple-choice questions. In addition to the choices below, they were given the option of answering ``Don't know.''
1. Which of these four achievements is not listed on Thomas Jefferson's tombstone?
a) Author of the Declaration of
Independence.
b) Father of the University of
Virginia.
c) President of the United States.
d) Author of the Statute of Virginia
for Religious Freedom.
2. Who is known as ``First in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen''?
a) Thomas Jefferson.
b) James Madison.
c) George Washington.
d) George Mason.
3. In which state was the last battle of the Revolutionary War fought?
a) New York.
b) Virginia.
c) Pennsylvania.
d) Massachusetts.
4. Who is the author of the Bill of Rights?
a) James Madison.
b) Thomas Jefferson.
c) John Hancock.
d) John Adams.
5. The Revolutionary War began with the Battle of Lexington-Concord in which year?
a) 1775.
b) 1776.
c) 1781.
d) 1783.
6. How many Colonies existed at the time of the Revolutionary War?
a) 13.
b) 50.
c) 10.
d) 21.
7. Who wrote ``Common Sense''?
a) Thomas Paine.
b) Thomas Jefferson.
c) George Washington.
d) Benjamin Franklin.
8. ``Give me liberty or give me death'' was uttered by what patriot?
a) Patrick Henry.
b) Thomas Jefferson.
c) Abraham Lincoln.
d) Paul Revere.
9. What were the Colonists rebelling against when they staged the Boston Tea Party?
a) Religion.
b) Slavery.
c) Taxes.
d) Other (specify).
The correct answers: 1. c, 2. c., 3. b, 4. a, 5. a, 6. a, 7. a, 8. a, 9. c.
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