American Freedom from Monarchy, Religion & Slavery and American Civil Rights: Voting, Marriage & Measurement

If you paid at least a little bit of attention in grade school then you probably know there is something called the United States Constitution. Most Americans even know that we have added several amendments over the years, but do we know enough to pass a simple quiz today?

We celebrate American independence every Fourth of July to commemorate that we freed ourselves from the oppression of monarchy. Now, since monarchy and religious law typically go hand in hand, we had the wisdom to make sure that our government can NOT impose religious law upon us through the power of our Bill of Rights. We have 27 amendments. Quiz yourself and find out how much YOU know about our constitutional amendments.

Look at the chart showing a few selected events over the last four centuries and see if you can match the year on the chart to the following four civil rights to see how long each one has been in place and how long these civil rights took to achieve:

 

Event A. Women’s Right to Vote

Event B. Abolition of Slavery

Event C. No Established Government Religion

Event D. Former Slaves Right to Vote

Now, for a bonus point, see if you can guess which year the Metric Act went into effect, making the Metric System the ONLY legal measurement system in the United States.

Before you peek at the answers down below, here is a little list showing when Same-Sex Marriage became (or will become) legal in these United States municipalities:

Answers to quiz:

1791 First Amendment: No Established Government Religion

1865 Thirteenth Amendment: Abolition of Slavery

1866 Metric Act

1870 Fifteenth Amendment: Male Former Slaves Right to Vote

1920 Nineteenth Amendment: Women’s Right to Vote

Yes. I was also surprised to discover that it took half a century between voting rights for former slaves and voting rights for women, and then almost a full century after that for people to allow something as simple as Same-Sex Marriage, something that is not even a new thing. Artifacts as old as 10,000 years BCE suggest an appreciation of homosexual eroticism. Romans and Greeks legalized homosexuality. The first law against same-sex marriage was promulgated by Christian emperors. Homosexuality has so far been observed in 1500 species of animals. The list of nations legalizing same-sex marriage grows longer every year. A new generation will wonder why it was ever an issue. I think it is time to amend our constitution once again to legalize same-sex marriage throughout the United States.

See more events here: http://metricpioneer.com/events.html

Furthermore, I recommend Linda’s recent More Than a Mile Behind blog post: The Top Ten Reasons Why Now is the Right Time for the United States to Convert to the Metric System.