Articles of Confederation: Our Constitution's Scrappy Ancestor

Lesson of the day

Articles of Confederation: Our Constitution’s Scrappy Ancestor

Listen: You can hear the episode here (Apple podcasts) on YouTube, or on our website. While you listen, consider these questions:

1. The Articles of Confederation had plenty of fatal flaws, so we finally scrapped them. Imagine if we never had, though. Do you think we’d still exist as a nation? If so, what would we look like?

2. Consider the environment in which the Articles were written — do you think that any system we came up with during a revolution would have been doomed to fail?

Do: QUIZ TIME! You got all that? Take this quiz to see if you did!

Do: A Journey To and Through Our First “Won’t Be Our Last” Constitution

The Articles of Confederation were no mean feat! They were carefully considered, thoroughly edited and crafted with a firm understanding of what we had fought and died to break away from. The AoC are something designed in the throes of crisis that could not last us into the cradle of peace, but they are our nation’s rough first draft preceding a beauty of a final manuscript. They served a vital purpose and got us off the ground! But how well do you know the trajectory of the Articles of Confederation? Join the committee that created it and find out.