Anthony Mastrantonio
Nate Schnittman
COPLAC, UIS
Contract
3/19/2017
Mission Statement
When looking at our audience, we wish to cater to undergraduate students, our website will be a jumping off point for further research into Vermont secession.
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 having 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 and lastly the Vermont Republic.
Timeline
I. New Hampshire Land Grants of 1749-1764
● Beginning land grants.
● 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’s claims 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.
● 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.
● 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 considering making 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 will be using are:
● Word Press
● JS Timeline
● JS Story Map
● Primary source documents
(In-text citation and links)
Connection of the Timeline/ Story Map to the website
The timeline is a broad overview of the all the important parts of the Vermont Republic secession movements will be covering. What the reader sees on the timeline will be a broad overview of our website. Our plan for the website is to cover three main sections of the Vermont Republic, 1) New Hampshire Land Grants of 1749-1764, 2) the formation of the Green Mountain Boys, 3) The actual secession movement, The Vermont Republic 1777-1791. Then each these main sections will have several pages dedicated to them. The timeline is divided this way, we will make the reader aware of this, with a description underneath the Timeline. The story map helps visualize where these important events happened during the emergence of the Vermont Republic. The story map, contains important events such as the Battle of Bennington, which we will talk on one of our pages. Other important events include, the Westminster Massacre, and declaration of independence. In both the timeline and story map, links to the pages where the information is discussed be include. Therefore, the user can use the visual tools of the timeline and story map as table contents for our website. If they look at the Battle of Bennington on the story map, they can click a quick link to the page and research the battle in greater detail.
Audience
Our main audience is undergraduate and graduate students looking for information on the Vermont Republic/secession, while still making it user friendly for the general public and those interested in American history. The story map and timeline are interactive programs that will be useful to draw in the general public. In our research so far, we have found lots information on the Vermont Republic, but it is defuse. We hope to condense all of the important information one would need to complete an undergraduate paper on the Vermont Republic. Essentially want our website would be the starting off point for undergraduate work and resource mining. Our audience is primarily college students, therefore, it will be written in academic fashion. It would be something a high school student could use for a report, but will be geared towards college students. It will include primary source analysis and some elements of historiography.
Schedule
March 20-26
1) Continue source gathering and analyze.
2) Complete rough draft of pages for the website.
March 27th
1) Submit rough draft to COPLAC website.
March 28-April 17
2) Complete Sections, I, II, III on UIS Website.
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 Monday the 24th.