During the American Revolution, New York and New Hampshire disputed ownership in present day Vermont. Initially referred to as the New Hampshire Grants, Vermont assumed its name during the war. Dr. Thomas Young is the first to refer to the region as Vermont.
The Lake Champlain Valley was a major invasion route between the American colonies and British Quebec. At the war’s outset, Col. Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys captured Ft. Ticonderoga from the British (with the participation of Benedict Arnold. Two years later, British General John Burgoyne invaded the valley recapturing the fort. After the fall of Ticonderoga, the American rear guard units unsuccessfully battled the advancing British at Hubbardton. Later, British and Hessian units attempted to gather food and supplies at Bennington and were thoroughly defeated.
After this 1777 battle, the Revolutionary War in Vermont devolved into skirmishes and small battles. The most famous raid was the Royalton Raid in 1781 (see Neil Goodwin’s book among the Secondary Sources below). Peace returned to Vermont in 1780 but the region would not officially become a state until 1791.
Diaries and Memoirs
Allen, Ethan. A Narrative of Colonel Ethan Allen’s Captivity. Edited by Stephen Carl Arch. Acton, Mass.: Copley Publishing Group, 2000.
Primary Sources
Allen, Ira. The Natural and Political History of the State of Vermont, One of the United States of America; to Which Is Added an Appendix Containing Answers to Sundry Queries Addressed to the Author. Rutland, Vt: C. E. Tuttle Co, 1969.
While Ira Allen did not witness all the accounts in his book, he was at the center of most of the founding activities of the State of Vermont. This should be the first book read by those interested in the founding of Vermont as a State.
The 1777 constitutional convention which established Vermont
In the east side town of Windsor, Vermont residents declared a “free and independent state of Vermont at the tavern of Elijah West on July 8, 1777. Courageously, Vermonters made this declaration in the face of a massive British Invasion of the state. General John Burgoyne led an 8000 man army from Canada down Lake Champlain threatening all of Vermont.
Remarkably, the Vermont constitution outlawed all slavery, the first abolition in any parts of the Americas. The constitution provided for almost all male suffrage and recognized the supremacy of the legislature over the executive branch.
Secondary Sources
Barney, Jason. Northern Vermont in the Revolutionary War. Charleston: The History Press, 2022.
Bassett, T. D. Seymour, Genevieve Taggard, Noel Perrin, and John Updike. Outsiders inside Vermont: Three Centuries of Visitors’ Viewpoints on the Green Mountain State, an Anthology. Canaan, N.H.: Phoenix, 1976.
Bushnell, Mark. Hidden History of Vermont, 2017. http://www.myilibrary.com?id=1046808.
Butz, Stephen D. Shays’ Settlement in Vermont: A Story of Revolt and Archaeology. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2017.
Cohn, Arhtur. “The Great Bridge between Mt. Independence and Ft. Ticonderoga,” May 1995. http://www.lcbp.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/DR4C_TheGreatBridgeTiconderogaIndependencePoint.pdf.
Duffy, John J., H. Nicholas Muller, and Gary G. Shattuck. The Rebel and the Tory: Ethan Allen, Philip Skene, and the Dawn of Vermont. First edition. Barre, Vermont: Vermont Historical Society, 2020.
For a review, see Journal of the American Revolution review.
Duffy, John J., H. Nicholas Muller, and Gary G. Shattuck. Inventing Ethan Allen. Hanover, New Hampshire: University Press of New England, 2014.
For a review, see Journal of the American Revolution review.
Researching the American Revolution 