Liz Covart

Liz Covart is the Digital Projects Editor at the Omohundro Institute at the College of William and Mary. She holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Davis. For more information about Liz and her podcast visit lizcovart.com.

Experiences of Revolution: Disruptions in Yorktown

July 13, 2022 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

What was everyday life like during the American War for Independence?

Our Fourth of July series continues with an investigation of how the American War for Independence impacted those who remained on the homefront. As episode 332 explored how the war impacted the lives of people who lived in urban Philadelphia, this episode investigates how the war impacted the lives of people who lived in the more rural setting of Yorktown, Virginia. [Read more…] about Experiences of Revolution: Disruptions in Yorktown

Experiences of Revolution: Occupied Philadelphia

July 6, 2022 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

What was everyday life like during the American War for Independence?

We’ll investigate answers to this question by exploring the histories of occupied Philadelphia and Yorktown, and how civilians, those left on the home front in both of those places, experienced the war and its armies.

These episodes will allow us to see how the war impacted those who remained at home. They will also allow us to better understand the messy confusion and uncertainty Americans experienced in between the big battles and events of the American Revolution. [Read more…] about Experiences of Revolution: Occupied Philadelphia

Educating Black Children at the Williamsburg Bray School

June 29, 2022 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

In a town as old as Williamsburg, Virginia, which was established in 1638, it’s often the case that historic buildings with interesting pasts stand unnoticed and in plain sight.

Such was the case for the building that once housed Williamsburg’s Bray School. A school founded by a group of Anglican clergymen with the express purpose of educating Black children in the ways of the Anglican faith. It was an education that included reading, possibly writing, and the Book of Common Prayer. [Read more…] about Educating Black Children at the Williamsburg Bray School

Loyalism in the British Atlantic World

June 15, 2022 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

In this episode of the Ben Franklin’s World Podcast, Brad Jones, Professor of History at California State University, Fresno and author of the book, Resisting Independence: Popular Loyalism in the Revolutionary British Atlantic (Cornell, 2021), joins us to investigate what loyalists believed and how loyalism was not just a loyalty or ideology adopted by British Americans living in the 13 rebellious colonies, but by Britons across the British Atlantic World. [Read more…] about Loyalism in the British Atlantic World

Free People of Color in Early America

May 18, 2022 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

In this episode of the Ben Franklin’s World Podcast, Warren Milteer Jr., an Assistant Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the author of North Carolina’s Free People of Color, 1715-1885 ((LSU Press, 2020) and Beyond Slavery’s Shadow: Free People of Color in the South (Univ. of North Carolina Press, 2021), joins Liz to explore the lives and experiences of free people of color, men and women who ranked somewhere in the middle or middle bottom of early American society. [Read more…] about Free People of Color in Early America

Ken Burns’ Benjamin Franklin Documentary with Producer David Schmidt

May 4, 2022 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

In this episode of the Ben Franklin’s World Podcast, David Schmidt, a senior producer at Florentine Films and a senior producer on Ken Burns’ Benjamin Franklin, joins Liz to investigate documentary filmmaking and the life of Benjamin Franklin. [Read more…] about Ken Burns’ Benjamin Franklin Documentary with Producer David Schmidt

Greek Fire: The Greek Revolution in Early America

April 20, 2022 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

In this episode of the Ben Franklin’s World Podcast, Maureen Connors Santelli, an Associate Professor of History at Northern Virginia Community College and author of The Greek Fire: American-Ottoman Relations and Democratic Fervor in the Age of Revolutions (Cornell Univ. Press, 2020), joins Liz to investigate the Greek Revolution and early Americans’ reactions to it. [Read more…] about Greek Fire: The Greek Revolution in Early America

Everyday People of the American Revolution

April 6, 2022 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

In this episode of the Ben Franklin’s World podcast, Woody Holton, a Professor of History at the University of South Carolina and the author of Liberty is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution (Simon Schuster, 2021), discusses with Liz how we can better see and understand the American Revolution as a whole event.

Holton’s widely acclaimed book describes the origins and crucial battles of the American Revolution from Lexington and Concord to the British surrender at Yorktown, always focusing on marginalized Americans — enslaved Africans and African Americans, Native Americans, women, and dissenters — and on overlooked factors such as weather, North America’s unique geography, chance, misperception, attempts to manipulate public opinion, and (most of all) disease. [Read more…] about Everyday People of the American Revolution

New Netherland: Slavery and Resistance in Dutch New York

March 23, 2022 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

In this episode of the Ben Franklin’s World Podcast, Andrea Mosterman, an Associate Professor of History at the University of New Orleans and author of Spaces of Enslavement: A History of Slavery and Resistance in Dutch New York (Cornell Univ. Press, 2021), joins us to explore what life was like in New Netherland and early New York, especially for the enslaved people who did much of the work to build this Dutch, and later English, colony. [Read more…] about New Netherland: Slavery and Resistance in Dutch New York