The Birth of the Green Mountain Boys

New England's Winter Playground had an unusual road to statehood - and at the helm were the Green Mountain Boys

With no offense to anyone in or from Vermont, it is safe to say they are most famously known for being “New England’s Winter Playground” and the destination where Bing Crosby and Danny Kay find loved in White Christmas.

However, the story of how the great state of Vermont came to be - lesser known by many, should be famous they are famous for. Before Vermont was accepted into the United States formally, and granted state hood, it existed as a sovereign nation known as the Vermont Republic.

Something Always Starts Over Land

The Vermont Republic came to be out of confusion over land grants issued by King George III. Great Britain having won the Seven Years’ War, began issuing land grants to British nobles settled in the American colonies for land littered throughout the Green Mountains.

As recipients raced to settle their new lands, confusion arose as recipients from both New Hampshire and New York had received claims to the same land. As could be expected, confrontation over the rights to the land escalated.

By rule of the British crown, the mix-up was righted by offering legal control to the contested lands to New York. The titles and charters once issued and approved for recipients in New Hampshire were thrown out.

A vast majority of the settlers disagreed with the ruling. Suddenly the lands nestled between the Connecticut River and Lake Champlain, known then as the New Hampshire Grants and today as Vermont were flush with angered settlers.

Rejecting the Crown’s Ruling

In 1770, a man from New Hampshire named Ethan Allen pulled together a militia of settlers who held New Hampshire land titles to resist New York’s attempts to control the territory. They would come to be called the Green Mountain Boys.

Throughout the 1770s, the Green Mountain Boys served not only as an armed military force, but a de facto government. Despite New York standing warrants for arrest, the Green Mountain Boys prohibited New York from settling the land.

Surveyors and officials who arrived to exercise their authority were met with staunch opposition. Some instances resulting in physical beatings, others in the destruction of possessions.

It would be at a courthouse in Westminster, in the wake of the death of two anti-Yorker protestors, where Ethan Allen organized a formal convention demanding the territory’s independence from New York.

A Conflict Within A Greater Conflict - The Birth of Two Nations

In 1775, as tensions between New York and the Green Mountain Boys escalated, to the south and east, greater tensions were rising. The American Revolution and the shot heard round the  world at Lexington and Concord had erupted.

Allen and a few of his Green Mountain Boys partnered with an infamous Connecticut Colonel named Benedict Arnold to capture strategically positioned British military posts at Fort Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and Fort George. All three of these forts resided in New York.

In early 1777, Vermont declared itself an independent nation. That’s right, an independent nation. They drafted the Constitution of Vermont, which for the time was considered extremely progressive. A highlight of the Constitution of Vermont included outlawing adult slavery by freeing male slaves at age 21 and female slaves at age 18.

While Vermont had declared itself an independent nation, considerations for rejoining the crown still existed - a goal highlighted by the Haldimand Affair and Ethan Allen’s memorial to British subjects after the war. He also provided details of Vermont’s willingness to rejoin the British crown. Discussions between the two nations would fall apart as Britain reeled from defeat.

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Vermont then turned to the newly formed United States of America and their long-standing rival, New York. The geographical neighbors produced successful negotiations. By October of 1790, any claims for land in Vermont were ceded by New York in return for $30,000.

Paying $87 per square mile in present day dollars, Vermont would formally secure its borders, end its tenure as an independent nation and join the United States. On March 4, 1791, fourteen years after becoming the Vermont Republic, Vermont was admitted to the United States as a free state.

Today, the spirit of the Green Mountain Boys lives on in Vermont’s Army and Air National Guards. Collectively, they are known as the Green Mountain Boys and still use the original Green Mountain Boys battle flag as their banner.

History for the Hurried:

December 1, 1988: Benazir Bhutto is nominated prime minister of Pakistan. She is the first woman to govern a Muslim nation.

December 2, 1804: Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned Emperor of France by Pope Pius VII in Paris.

December 2, 1979: Iran votes overwhelming in favor of forming a new constitution and granting absolute power to Ayatollah Khomeini.