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Tony Mastrantonio and Nate Schnittman’s Contract

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Mission Statement

When looking at our audience, we wish to cater to the local residents of Vermont, specifically, the Second Vermont Republic. They are a modern day Vermont secessionist movement that wishes to restore the original Vermont Republic run by Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys. We are aware they are most likely familiar with a lot of the Vermont Republics history, but we hope to bring new Midwestern perspectives to the group. On a broader scale, our website is expected to be useful to fellow undergraduate and graduate students that seek information on Vermont and their rich history of independence.
Accessibility is key to our initial planning, we want our visitors to get a comprehensive view of the Vermont Republic with as little hassle as possible. To accomplish this goal, our timelines, story maps, and pages will be simplistic, but engaging. We plan on have 3 main sections with multiple sub-pages attached. The three main sections will include the New Hampshire Land Grants of 1749-1764, followed by the formation of the Green Mountain Boys led by Ethan Allen, lastly, the Vermont Republic.

I. New Hampshire Land Grants of 1749-1764
• Beginning land grants (First page within Section I).
• New Hampshire Governor squabbled with the New York Governor.
• New Hampshire appealed to the Crown (the British Government) for land grants in an effort to prove that the New York Governor had no jurisdiction within current day Vermont.
• The appeal went to the Privy Council. The Privy Council Struck down New Hampshire and ruled that New York had the rights to current day Vermont. That ruling thrusted the New Hampshire land holders into action, which included Ethan Allen, who held 50,000 acres of New Hampshire land grants prior to the privy council ruling in favor of New York.

II. Formation of the Green Mountain Boys led by Ethan Allen
• Ethan Allen, having a large stake in the New Hampshire land grants (50,000 acres that were useless after the ruling), went to modern day Vermont in 1764 and founded the Green Mountain Boys. A local militia that was dedicated to retaining the land they that viewed as theirs (First page within section II).
• The Green Mountain Boys were largely made of settlers that had a stake in the New Hampshire land grants (almost exclusively).
• The militia was successful in stopping New York law enforcement that tried to evict and arrest the Green Mountain Boys for what was “technically” squatting. Even though men like Ethan Allen legally purchased the New Hampshire land, the ruling voided previous land agreements, making the settlers of New Hampshire illegal “squatters.”
• The Green Mountain Boys ruled modern day Vermont from 1770 to 1777 with little interference from New York.

III. Vermont Republic
• Vermont declared itself an independent republic in 1777. Not as part of the British Empire or the thirteen colonies, but its own independent nation (First page within section III).
• They largely remain neutral during the American Revolution, but played a crucial role in the American victory at the battle of Bennington (1777), which was named after Benning Wentworth, the author of the New Hampshire land grants. At the Battle of Bennington, the British suffered high casualties, with over 200 dead and 700 captured. After battle of Bennington, France decided to join the Revolution, which marked a turning point for American forces.
• 1781, the Haldimand Affair rocked the Vermont-colonial relations with news of Ethan Allen and the governor of Quebec in negotiations for Vermont to rejoin the British Empire. Allen was ready to make a deal with the governor of Quebec until the battle of Yorktown later in 1781, where colonial America achieved a decisive victory against the British. America had the upper hand against its former imperial masters, Vermont, therefore, decided to join the Union of the United of States instead of the British Empire. Once within the Union of the United States, Vermont traded complete independence (as achieved in 1777), for a degree of political autonomy within a larger, successful union.

Tools We Plan to Use
• Word Press
• JS Timeline
• JS Story Map
• Primary source documents
(In-text citation and links)
• Digital Images

Schedule
Feb 18th through March 10th
1) Search Vermont Historical Society website and schedule online or phone (call or skype) consultation for spring break (March 13-17).
2) Begin Section 1, New Hampshire Land Grants 1749-1764.
3) Complete timeline for New Hampshire Land Grants 1749-1764 on February 25-27th for the required timeline due February 27th.
4) Continue work on Section 1.
March 13th through 17th (Spring Break)
1) Internet or phone meetings with Vermont Historical Society.
2) Go through sources from Vermont Historical Society that are relevant to section II and III.
3) Get sources for section II and III organized.
4) Begin section II.
March 20-31
1) Finish section II
2) Begin section III, if section II is finished early.
April 1-17
1) Complete Section III
April 17-21
1) Maintenance and touch ups on website. That includes any graphics that have not yet been added, additional research if needed, and extensive proof reading for grammar mistakes or structural issues.
April 24-26
1) Class presentations of project, we will plan as if we are presenting on the 24th.

Steven Ozment, “Turning the World Upside Down”

Steven Ozment’s, “Turning the World Upside Down” (from Protestants: The Birth of a Revolution), asks the question, “was the Protestant Reformation a Revolution?” In order to properly answer that question, the author states that we must first ask, “why so many Germans had become so mad at the Church of Rome in the early 16th century?” The German people experienced years of unanswered requests for limitations on the clergy that had taken advantage of papal authority, prior to the reformation began in the 1520’s. Many clergy openly broke the doctrine of celibacy with minimal punishment, while simultaneously making German Christians stand trial in Church Courts under the threat of excommunication. The Church perpetuated the cycle of corruption at the expense of the German tax payers by appointing generous “livings” for clergy unfit for Priestly duty.  Commonly, the rich could “afford” to pay for absolution, but “not the poor Germans,” due to corruption within the clerical hierarchy. From the view of the average German lay person, the Catholic Church had begun to lose its way when it began taking money from German Christians to fund the visible corruption throughout its ranks. That corruption involved abuse of Church power with bribery and extortion that extended from granting absolution to avoiding excommunication. Also, using funds to fund lavish and easy lives for Priests in towns where 10 percent of the population was clergy. Besides for social, political, and economic suffering, the German laypeople suffered spiritually as well. With unfit spiritual institutions, they suffered a short of spiritual crisis prior to the reformation. An example of disconnection between the German people and the Church was the unwillingness of the Catholic Church to move masses from Latin to the indigenous language.

Ozment make a good point that when historians look at the Protestant Reformation, they largely overlook the spiritual side of the reformation in an effort to try and separate religion from the political and social realm. The author warns that this is a mistake because then the reformation becomes portrayed as the least successful social movement in the early sixteenth century instead of the most successful spiritual movement. In part, the Protestant reformation was driven by social and political factors, such as the want for less Papal involvement in secular aspects of society including government and education. For example, the Protestants wanted more states’ rights and local control and less hierarchical authority of the Church. So even though money and power were important factors that does not mean that faith and piety did not play an important role in one of the biggest reformations in religious history. The the root of the issue was that many people viewed the practices and doctrine of the Catholic Church as incorrect and not how they wanted to worship their God. That extends far beyond the physical realm and goes into the spiritual idea of, “what is the correct way to worship our God?” We have to look at the reformation from a social and political perspective because of how the Catholic Church was intertwined with society in this time period, but the heart of the reformation was a theological revolution.

We have therefore established why so many Germans were mad at the Catholic Church, but we must now decide if the Protestant Reformation was a Revolution? If we are defining Revolution purely by politics and economics then, no, it was not a revolution because the Catholic Church did not have direct control over countries, just influence. If we define revolution in terms of spirituality, then yes, it was a revolution. It stopped direct influence of the Catholic Church in German governmental affairs and reduced hierarchical control of people’s daily worship to local control. The power then shifted to more secular entities in the form of Protestant councils, trading one hierarchical spiritual organization as the main authority for localized spiritual councils made up of Pastors and laymen.

The Vermont Republic

The origin of the Vermont Republic lies in the so called New Hampshire Grants, land granted by the governor of New Hampshire from 1749 to 1764. These claims were disputed by New York and eventually the grants were struck down by the British Board of Trade in 1764 and further invalidated by the New York Supreme Court. Disputing these claims, Ethan Allen led a group of settlers/militia men called the Green Mountain Boys to defend themselves from New York militiamen and British soldiers attempting to enforce the property claims. They were able to successfully keep the New Yorker’s out of the territory and maintained order in the area. Ethan Allen brought the Green Mountain Boys to the aid of the fledgling American Revolution by sacking Fort Ticonderoga in 1775, later by leading American troops in the failed 1775 invasion of Canada.
In the meantime, the New Hampshire Grants declared independence as the Republic of New Connecticut (later Vermont) in 1777. The constitution was very liberal, abolishing slavery and giving universal male suffrage as well as guarantees common to the United States Bill of Rights (freedom of the press, religion, right to bear arms, etc). During the Revolutionary War it generally held to a policy of neutrality between the British and Americans, acting as a safe haven for dissenters from both armies. However in the Battle of Bennington in 1777, the Green Mountain Boys came to the aid of the Americans in a town near the border of Vermont, defeating a force of British and Hessian soldiers. On the other hand, Ethan Allen (returning to Vermont after his release from captivity in 1778) was involved in controversial negotiations between Vermont and Great Britain known as the Haldimand Affair. The proposal was for Vermont to join the British Empire again. Allen met with the Governor of Quebec, Fredrick Haldimand, in 1781, but the negotiation was thwarted by the end of the war. Vermonters switched to working towards eventual union with the United States, which was achieved in 1791 as the first post Constitution state, winning Vermont the recognition of self government the Green Mountain Boys originally fought to defend.
The Vermont Republic is important to secessionist history because it incorporates the ideas of community, political autonomy, and secession. The actual secession was represented by the 1777 Vermont Constitution, which separated Vermont from the iron grips of New York and New Hampshire. Both New York and New Hampshire tried to incorporate Vermont into their states post American Revolution. The importance of Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys to the state of Vermont is unparalleled by any other entities throughout the state’s history. A bold claim, I know, but the state of Vermont would not exist as we know it today without the action of secession, it would just be part of New York or New Hampshire. In our project we are going to attempt to trace the seeds of secession that sprouted prior to the Revolutionary War and bloomed throughout the beginning of the war, eventually leading to the Vermont Republic. We will pay particularly close attention to the formation of the Green Mountain Boys, with an emphasis on why they decided that secession was the correct action. That will include their definition of community and secession personified in the writings of leading figures within the Green Mountain Boys such as Ethan Allen. There is roughly a twenty year period of successful secession and independence that was traded in for semi-autonomy. We think the Vermont Republic is a good example of a successful secession movement driven by a simple desire to owe no allegiances or bow to no throne (to quote the Song of the Vermonters).
By: Tony Mastrantonio and Nate Schnittman