Independence Day: 9 Myths Debunked

The National Assessment of Education Progress revealed that in 2010, just 7 percent of eighth graders could correctly identify the three branches of government. Only 9 percent of fourth graders could identify a photograph of Abraham Lincoln and state two reasons for his importance.

In celebration of the educational and historical aspects of Independence Day, here's a slideshow of 9 historical facts we've had wrong all these years about U.S. Independence. Adapted from National Geographic News.

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John Adams Died Thinking of Thomas Jefferson

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Both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson did die on July 4, but no evidence proves that Adams's final thoughts were with Jefferson or that he uttered "Jefferson survives" on his deathbed. But even if he did, he was wrong, as Jefferson died several hours earlier.

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Both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson did die on July 4, but no evidence proves that Adams's final thoughts were with Jefferson or that he uttered "Jefferson survives" on his deathbed. But even if he did, he was wrong, as Jefferson died several hours earlier.

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Comments

[Pam Miner]

01:45 PM on 08/14/2011

It's a well known and loved poem, but lots of people don't know it was a poem. I didn't know it was written to encourage patriotism for the civil war. It would be better if people knew the real historical account.

[sigmetsue]

05:30 PM on 08/13/2011

It gets worse. Kids these days don't know who Columbus or Pilgrims were. Washington? Lincoln? Who were they? Thank the NCLB. It's not on the test.

[philogical]

04:12 PM on 08/10/2011

Perhaps it is because I older than many of the readers, or perhaps it is because I read books, but these supposed myths have never been true and when I went to school they were not taught. We were taught that Betsy Ross made a flag for the revolution, but it was not the first flag nor was it the last flag. The numbers are a little different, but we were taught that 1/3 of the colonists supported the Crown, 1/3 was for the rebellion and 1/3 just wanted to be left alone. We knew that the Native American population fought on both sides. If as the writer states, these stories have been told in place of history it could be one of the reasons that our children do so poorly in school. Teaching the real history is just as good as the myth, or false memories from that time, because it shows people being people and striving for what we would later call the American Dream. While interesting, this is once again a non story from the people at the Huff and Puff hate American press.

[oldmole1861]

08:42 AM on 08/07/2011

In the treaty that ended the French and Indian war in 1763 the British stipulated the right of American Indians to live unmolested in their ancestral lands. This ban to their expansion infuriated American colonists and was one of the grievances cited (indirectly) in the Declaration of Independence.

Had the War of Independence failed, so might the genocide of the Indians have been prevented.

[goode88]

11:18 AM on 08/02/2011

Nothing was even debunked in this article and most 5th grade history students know this information?

[AbstractionAction]

11:54 PM on 08/06/2011

Hahaha HAH HAH HAH. Where do you live?

[Blacksheep1]

12:14 AM on 07/31/2011

The blame America first progressives are going to be swarming this article.....

[renegade1001]

01:35 PM on 07/17/2011

I am just glad that we were able to come back after the English attacked us at Pearl Harbor during the TET offensive with their Soviet Allies who sank the battleship Main in Havana Harbor during the battle of Gettysburg!

[katsuryi]

06:16 AM on 07/20/2011

Man, those were the good old days. Nobody seems to remember how we whooped the Mongolians during the Great Cheese Strike of 1932.

[crabbyj67]

08:00 PM on 07/20/2011

My grandfather has fondue memories of his time in the Army during the first Great Cheese Strike of '32 ("The Fromage to End all Fromage")...though he didn't serve long, saying his enlistment was "brie, but memorable", he was proud to be a part of it. After I got married, he used to get this far-away look in his eye whenever we showed him photos from our honeymoon trip to Switzerland. Before he died, he told us it was because he suffered from PTSD, from his unit seizing a bridge across the Rind, then being overun during the Siege of Queso, while waiting to be relieved by the Swiss...The Swiss had devised a battle-plan that they thought would end the war, but it was full of holes. He was the finest manchego I ever knew.

[gomezrules]

11:07 PM on 07/05/2011

These are new revelations? Did the author just find these out? The only thing I take exception with is the bit about Betsy Ross. "No proof she did or didn't..." does not make it a 'myth'. Absent any evidence that makes it otherwise, she shouldn't be besmirched just because she isn't around to make a claim, or to defend herself!

[pfz]

03:52 PM on 07/26/2011

She was an invention for a marketing campaign in Pittsburgh to sell shoes, she didn't actually exist.

[Golyadkin]

07:25 PM on 08/01/2011

Yes she did. 5 seconds of research shows that.

[DogsLieMovie]

05:49 PM on 07/05/2011

George Washington was a fine Englishman who got the Job done ( ps all Brits have bad teath)

[Rose Morris]

02:50 PM on 07/06/2011

George had pretty good teeth! Of course, they were dentures.

[VA Jill]

12:41 PM on 07/05/2011

You left out the biggest myth of all......"America is a Christian country and the fouding fathers were devout Christians who meant it to be that way."

[shmh1]

02:03 PM on 07/06/2011

Read their actual words in their own handwritten documents and letters, and you will see differently. However, I know that is not what many want to see.

There are many documents and personal letters with the Founders proclaiming devout faith in Jesus Christ and God. Had they known what would have been done with their decisions (thinking Americans would stay with Christian values and principles), I feel they would have been much more specific in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
They did not say everyone had to be a Chrisitian. They just based Americans founding on those principles. They said freedom OF religion, not freedom FROM religion. They never meant for religion to be kept out of government .

Look at their handwritten documents and letters before you say I am wrong. David Barton has a huge collection of documents and letters.

[bird2129]

07:18 PM on 07/06/2011

Freedom of religion means it won't be involved in the government, because if government and laws were based with religion and on someone else's religion, we wouldn't all have religious freedom would we?

[renegade1001]

01:33 PM on 07/17/2011

Three of the founding fathers were Jewish

[Blacksheep1]

12:10 AM on 07/31/2011

It is a Christian nation founded by devout Christians.

You are NOT entitled to your own facts.

[Golyadkin]

07:32 PM on 08/01/2011

You are entitled to your delusion. The reality will forever remain that this nation was founded by deists and atheists who wanted to keep religion and government as far apart as possible.

[spoonbill1963]

11:21 AM on 07/05/2011

The Liberty Bell was poorly cast because it was made in China.

[me the z]

01:09 PM on 08/05/2011

I get the humor, and it even made me smile. The truth, of course, is that it was repeatedly cast poorly by "white" people who never did get it right.

[Vic22]

02:56 AM on 07/05/2011

Sounds like, like all historic events, it was complex, not just good vs evil, our amazing, infallible forefather deities vs the evil British

[spoonbill1963]

11:22 AM on 07/05/2011

You sound like a progressive who hates the US.

[Vic22]

11:29 AM on 07/05/2011

I sound like someone who thinks our country is great, and can be greater, but to erase our past injustices and just claim that our country was created by immaculate conception, is disengenuois, and keeps us from realizing how far we still have to do. Too many people use blind patriotism to become complacent

[amightysword]

10:55 PM on 07/05/2011

I think you missed his point. History is never so simple, that does not make him anti-American.

[shthar]

03:59 PM on 07/04/2011

10. It did not start a democracy, it started a republic.

[spoonbill1963]

11:23 AM on 07/05/2011

Still is at last glance.

[amightysword]

10:56 PM on 07/05/2011

And your point is?

[renegade1001]

01:37 PM on 07/17/2011

Democratic Republic

[gevan]

03:28 PM on 07/04/2011

A favorite poem of mine http://www.colorpro.com/wmdawes/theride.html
School children everywhere should learn it.

[gevan]

03:23 PM on 07/04/2011

What's the deal with that Ronald Reagan statue story?

[shthar]

04:00 PM on 07/04/2011

You're telling me.

I wanted to see if any of them were made of government cheese.

[wonderYrednow]

04:36 PM on 07/04/2011

Sleeze, maybe.... it coagulates and hardens when left in the dark.