Vermont declares independence from British crown, Jan. 15, 1777

On this day in 1777, a convention comprising 72 future Vermonters met in the town of Westminster to declare their independence from both the British crown and New York, which along with rival New Hampshire, claimed the land. The delegates included Thomas Chittenden, who would become Vermont’s first governor in 1778, and Ira Allen, who would become known as the father of the University of Vermont.

They called the territory New Connecticut. When they met again in June in another town, Windsor, to write a constitution, they changed the name to Vermont, an imperfect rendering of the French term for “green mountain,” or “ montagne verte.”


For the next 14 years, Vermont was an independent republic, with its own coinage and postal service. Vermont’s constitution, modeled in part on the one that Benjamin Franklin wrote for Pennsylvania, was the first in America to bar adult slavery and allow all men to vote, regardless of their lack of property or income.

Throughout the 1780s, the Continental Congress refused to acknowledge that Vermont was a separate entity, independent of New York. In response, Vermonters inquired whether the British would readmit them as part of Canada. Even after George Washington became president in 1789, Vermont remained an independent republic for two more years.

In 1790, New York consented to Vermont’s admission to the Union for a payment of $30,000 and negotiated the New York-Vermont boundary to be the midchannel of Lake Champlain.

Vermont finally joined the Union in 1791 as the 14th state, becoming the first state to be admitted after the original 13 Colonies. It served as a political counterweight to slave-holding Kentucky, the 15th state, which was admitted to the Union in 1792.

SOURCE: WWW.SEC.STATE.VT.US