Ethan Allen

Overview

Ethan Allen (1738–1789) was a prominent American Revolutionary figure and a key player in establishing the State of Vermont. Born in Litchfield, Connecticut, Allen’s life was characterized by his fervent commitment to contested land titles granted by the New Hampshire governor in territories recognized as in the colony of New York. Allen led a vigilante group called the Green Mountain Boys, a militia group active in the frontier region of Vermont. Allen’s name became synonymous with the capture of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775, a daring feat that provided a significant boost to the Revolutionary cause. His leadership, combined with his charismatic personality and unwavering dedication to the fight to establish Vermont as a separate state from New York and New Hampshire, solidified his reputation as a folk hero and a symbol of colonial resistance.

Ethan Allen’s contributions extended beyond the battlefield, as he was also an influential political thinker. He advocated for the establishment of an independent Vermont Republic, working to secure recognition and support for the region’s self-governance. His writings, including the influential pamphlet “A Vindication of the Opposition of Vermont to the Government of New York,” reflected his staunch belief in the rights of local communities to chart their own destinies. Allen’s legacy endures in the values of self-determination and individual liberties that he championed during a pivotal period in American history.

Primary Sources

Allen, Ethan, and Stephen Carl Arch. A Narrative of Colonel Ethan Allen’s Captivity. Acton, Mass.: Copley Pub. Group, 2000.

Allen, Ethan. Reason, Only Oracle of Man; or a Compendious System of Natural Religion. Boston: J. P. Mendum, Cornhill, 1854.

Allen, Ethan, and John J. Duffy. Ethan Allen and His Kin: Correspondence, 1772-1819. 2 vols. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1998.

Allen, Ethan, Ira Allen, and J. Kevin Graffagnino. Ethan and Ira Allen: Collected Works. 3 vols. Benson, Vt: Chalidze Publications, 1992.

“Burgoyne ‘Gates Has Ethan Allen in His Head’ and Will Exchange No Other,” n.d.

Secondary Sources

Books

Bellesiles, Michael A. Revolutionary Outlaws: Ethan Allen and the Struggle for Independence on the Early American Frontier. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1993.

Bennett, David. A Few Lawless Vagabonds: Ethan Allen, the Republic of Vermont, and the American Revolution. Havertown, PA: Casemate Publishers, 2014.

Brown, Charles Walter. Ethan Allen of Green Mountain Fame – A Hero of the Revolution. Chicago: M. A.Donohue & Co., n.d.

Crytzer, Brady. “The Highs and Lows of Ethan Allen’s Reputation as Reported by Revolutionary Era Newspapers,” n.d. https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-t5eks-13a09e4.

De Puy, Henry W. Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys. Buffalo: Phinney & Co., 1857.

Dorson, Richard M., ed. Patriots of the American Revolution: True Accounts by Great Americans, from Ethan Allen to George Rogers Clark. New York: Gramercy Books, 1998.

Duffy, John J., and H. Nicholas Muller. Inventing Ethan Allen. Hanover, New Hampshire: University Press of New England, 2014.

———. “Inventing Ethan Allen.” Journal of the American Revolution, August 6, 2014. https://allthingsliberty.com/2014/08/inventing-ethan-allen/.

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.

Most primary sources on the American War for Independence have been thoroughly researched and it is rare to discover completely new documents.  This is exactly what the authors of The Tory and the Patriot have accomplished.  The authors uncovered legal documents in musty New York Archives that had not been read in over 200 years.  These scrolled documents pertain to pre-war activities of the celebrated Ethan Allen, the famed conqueror of Ft. Ticonderoga in 1775.  The new discovery radically changes the generally accepted view of Ethan Allen from a heroic defender of small farmers’ interests to merely an incompetent land speculator.  Further, the three Vermont historians’ research highlights the efforts of a large landowner, Philip Skene, British General Jeffrey Amherst and Allen to carve a portion of northern New York and modern-day Vermont into a fourteenth colony during the years leading up to the revolution.  The trio of authors’ new book sheds a completely different light on the character and contributions of Ethan Allen, Vermont’s fabled Green Mountain Boy.

The appendix of this book contains valuable primary source information on Ethan Allen and Philip Skene.  In addition, the authors describe a complete historiography for Ethan Allen and the founding of Vermont.  This book should be the starting place for any research on Ethan Allen.

Ethan, Allen. Reason, Only Oracle of Man; or a Compendious System of Natural Religion. Boston: J. P. Mendum, Cornhill, 1854.

Hall, Henry. Ethan Allen – The Robin Hood of Vermont. New YOrk: D. Appleton and Company, 1892.

Holbrook, Stewart H. Ethan Allen. New York: The MacMillian Company, 1940.

Hoyt, Edwin P. The Damndest Yankees: Ethan Allen & His Clan. Brattleboro, Vt: S. Greene Press, 1976.

Jellison, Charles A. Ethan Allen – Frontier Rebel. Syracuse, N.Y: Syracuse University Press, 1969.

Pell, John. Ethan Allen. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1929.

Randall, Willard Sterne. Ethan Allen: His Life and Times. 1st ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Co, 2011.

Woolston, G. “The Following Is Said to Be a Genuine Copy of a Letter from Mr. Woolson of London, to General Ethan Allen.” Vermont Gazette, May 5, 1788.

Wren, Christopher S. Those Turbulent Sons of Freedom: Ethan Allen’s Green Mountain Boys and the American Revolution. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018.

Journal Articles

Kolenda, Benjamin. “Re-Discovering Ethan Allen and Thomas Young’s Reason the Only Oracle of Man: The Rise of Deism in Pre-Revolutionary America.” In English Thesis. Georgia State University, 2013. https://doi.org/10.57709/4879681.

Procknow, Eugene. “The Highs and Lows of Ethan Allen’s Reputation as Reported by Revolutionary Era Newspapers.” Journal of the American Revolution, February 21, 2023. https://allthingsliberty.com/2023/02/the-highs-and-lows-of-ethan-allens-reputation-as-reported-by-revolutionary-era-newspapers/.

Procknow, Eugene. “British Fascination with Ethan Allen.” edited by Todd Andrlik. Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2016.

———. “Ethan Allen:  Patriot, Land Promoter or Turncoat?” Journal of the American Revolution, November 5, 2013. https://allthingsliberty.com/2013/11/ethan-allen-patriot-land-promoter-turncoat/.

———. “Seth Warner or Ethan Allen:  Who Led the Green Mountain Boys?” Journal of the American Revolution, February 24, 2014. https://allthingsliberty.com/2014/05/seth-warner-or-ethan-allen-who-led-the-green-mountain-boys.

Statues and Memorials

There are no known Ethan Allen paintings or other likenesses only idealized statues.  For information on the statues and artists renderings of Ethan Allen, see a Burlington Free Press article.

 

Artist Renderings

Ethan Allen Homestead in Burlington, Vermont

Built with the assistance of Ira Allen after the conclusion of the American Revolution.  Ethan lived in the house with his second wife, Fanny.  In addition to their children, three servants lived with them.  He wrote his philosophical opus Reason, the Oracle of Man in this house.  He died in the house in 1789.  According to biographer William Sterne Randall, Allen likely died of exposure after drinking too much on the way back home from obtaining hay on Hero Island during the dead of winter.

Mt Ethan Allen and Mt. Ira Allen with Camel’s Hump in the background

Located in the Green Mountains above the Mad River Valley in North Central Vermont. The summits are mostly visited by through hikers on the Long Trail and are not easily seen from towns and highways.