Covart on “First Drafts of the U.S.,” 8 Oct.

On Wednesday, 8 October, Old North Illuminated will present an online talk by Liz Covart, creator and host of the Ben Franklin’s World podcast, about “The First Drafts of the United States: Early Experiments in American Union.”

The event description says:

Long before the Articles of Confederation, colonial Americans spent over a century struggling to unite—and mostly failing spectacularly.

Discover the forgotten stories of America’s “rough drafts”: the New England Confederacy’s bold 1643 experiment, the authoritarian disaster of the Dominion of New England, William Penn’s visionary continental congress proposal, and Benjamin Franklin’s ahead-of-its-time Albany Plan. Each attempt crashed against the rocks of regional jealousies, cultural clashes, and economic chaos.

These weren’t just boring political experiments; they were high-stakes gambles involving real people grappling with questions that still echo today: How do you balance local autonomy with collective strength? Can diverse communities truly unite?

For over a decade Covart has helmed the award-winning Ben Franklin’s World podcast, now up to more than 400 episodes and 13 million downloads. She was Founding Director of Colonial Williamsburg Innovation Studios and Digital Projects Editor at the Omohundro Institute, and she co-founded Clio Digital Media and the History Explorers Club to connect history lovers outside the academy with cutting-edge scholarship. Covart earned her Ph.D. in history studying Albany, a crossroads of early American cultures.

This event will take place from 7 to 8:30 P.M. To sign up for the Zoom link, in exchange for a donation of your choice, go to this registration page.