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Vermont Republic
The independent republic that became the 14th state
Former 1777–1791
Before it was a state, Vermont was a country of its own. In January 1777, settlers in the Green Mountains, caught between rival land claims from New York and New Hampshire, declared independence from both Britain and New York, first as New Connecticut and, by that summer, as Vermont. Its 1777 constitution was the first in North America to ban adult slavery, and it let men vote whether or not they owned property, both radical ideas at the time.
For 14 years the republic ran its own affairs under Governor Thomas Chittenden. It minted copper coins, operated a postal service and naturalized citizens, and while the Continental Congress refused to admit it over New York's objections, its leaders, among them Ethan Allen and his brothers, quietly opened talks with British Canada. Once Vermont agreed to pay New York $30,000 to settle the land dispute, the way was clear, and on March 4, 1791 it joined the Union as the 14th state, the first after the original 13.