Independence and Statehood

The territory was claimed by both New Hampshire and New York as a result of vaguely defined boundaries in the royal charters of the two colonies. In 1764 England ruled in favor of New York, and attempts were made to drive out those settlers who held land grants from New Hampshire. In 1770 the settlers of the so-called New Hampshire Grants organized a military force known as the Green Mountain Boys, under the leadership of Ethan Allen, to harass holders of New York land grants.

At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, there were about 10,000 people in the area between the Connecticut River and Lake Champlain. The Green Mountain Boys formed a regiment in the struggle against the British. A small group from the Vermont regiment, led by Allen and Benedict Arnold, captured Fort Ticonderoga without bloodshed in 1775. In 1777 the Green Mountain Boys helped defeat German and Tory forces in the Battle of Bennington. (

While the war was being fought, New Hampshire dropped its claim to Vermont, but New York persisted. In July, 1777, Vermont settlers held a convention at Windsor, drew up a constitution, and proclaimed their independence. Thomas Chittenden was elected the first governor. The Continental Congress was petitioned for recognition but refused to grant Vermont statehood because of New York's unsettled claims. For 14 years, Vermont existed as the independent republic of New Connecticut. In 1790 the boundary disputes were settled, and on March 4, 1791, Vermont was admitted to the Union as the 14th state. A new constitution was adopted in 1793. The state legislature met at different locations until 1805, when Montpelier was made the permanent capital.

In the first two decades of statehood, Vermont was the fastest-growing state in the nation. Population increased from about 85,000 in 1790 to 218,000 in 1810, with most of the new settlers coming from southern New England. In the early 1800's, the people of Vermont were mainly native-born Congregationalists who supported the Federalist party. (They later became solidly Whig and then Republican.) The economy was largely agricultural, and most people lived on self-sufficient farms.

Because of trade carried on with the British in Canada, there was opposition, particularly in the northern part of the state, to the War of 1812. However, during the war, Vermonters repulsed British warships off Burlington in 1813, and in 1814 a British fleet was defeated in an engagement on Lake Champlain near Plattsburgh, New York.

In the 1810's, many small factories and mills were established and towns and villages developed. The opening of the Champlain-Hudson Canal (1823) and the Erie Canal (1825) and the construction of early railroad lines in the 1840's facilitated trade. They also stimulated outward migration, mainly of farmers leaving the rocky farmlands of Vermont for better lands in the Midwest and the West.

The period from the 1820's to the Civil War was a time of social ferment in Vermont. Beginning in the late 1820's, the Anti-Masonic movement became a disrupting force in the political life of the state. Feelings against the secrecy and political power of the Masons ran higher here than anywhere else in the country. The Anti-Masonic party controlled the governorship, 1831-35, and because of the strength of the anti-Masonic movement, many Masonic groups within the state decided to dissolve. (

By the 1830's, abolitionist sentiment had also become strong in Vermont. Many runaway slaves were aided by the Underground Railroad in the state. In 1837 the state legislature enacted an antislavery resolution. About half of Vermont's men of military age—some 35,000—joined the Union Army during the Civil War (1861-65). In proportion to the size of its population, Vermont lost more men in battle than any other state—one out of seven. In addition, the cost of the Civil War to Vermont was high in economic terms. The state legislature appropriated some 9 million dollars, a large proportion of its tax revenues, to be spent on the war effort. Vermont was the scene of a minor skirmish in 1864, when escaped Confederate prisoners based in Canada attacked St. Albans, looting its banks.

In 1867 St. Albans was used as a base of operations by the Fenians, an Irish political group who hoped to separate Canada from Great Britain. (

In the post-Civil War period, there was some industrialization, especially in the field of paper manufacturing, and some growth in the mining of granite, marble, and slate. Immigration of Irish, French-Canadian, Italian, and Scottish workers helped to offset the loss of two out of five native-born Vermonters, mainly farmers and their families, who left the state in each decade of the last half of the 19th century. The new immigrants settled in urban areas, and such places as St. Johnsburg, Rutland, and Barre grew dramatically during the late 19th century as local industries prospered.