Sources found:
1) Benning Wentworth’s Claims in the New Hampshire-New York Border Controversy: A case of Twenty-Twenty Hindsight? (1975)
By: Allan R. Raymond
This source secondary source explores the New Hampshire-New York border controversy through a contemporary point of view. The author claims that many look at the controversy through a modern perspective, letting Wentworth’s flagrant disregard for instructions blind them from what really occurred. Wentworth had a legitimate right to dispense the land grants. Raymond’s evidence is based off the New Hampshire occupation of the Dummerstown blockhouse and trading post. Built with private funds in 1724 (in exchange for land), the blockhouse (originally built for frontier security) had a small trading post attached to it (built in 1728). The trading post was intended to maintain Indian goodwill (e.g. maintain trade relations on the border) and did not make much of a profit. Since the trading post did not yield much profits, the oblation to supply troops and maintenance for Dummerstown was debated by Massachusetts, New York, and New Hampshire. New York insisted that New Hampshire should maintain Dummerstown. According to Raymond, “the crucial point, however, is not who maintained the fort, but the view of all three participants, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and the crown, that the outpost was on New Hampshire Soil, that was the colony’s first solid claim west of the Connecticut (23).” By looking at it from this contemporary perspective, we can see the logic behind Wentworth’s actions.
Primary sources mined out of this secondary work:
1) Benning Wentworth to George Clinton, 25 April, 1750, Doc. HIST. N.Y., IV, 533-4.
https://books.google.com/books?id=2o07AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA201&lpg=PA201&dq=Benning+Wentworth+to+George+Clinton&source=bl&ots=y38S9cV3U-&sig=WwyWjmhEd57evux5g6-lu666Qn8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiSsJH7v-TSAhXG7yYKHfEcBoEQ6AEIMjAE#v=onepage&q=Benning%20Wentworth%20to%20George%20Clinton&f=false
2) George Clinton to Benning Wentworth, 6 June, 1750, Ibid, IV, 543-5
3) United States Reports. Vermont V. New Hampshire, Vol. 289, (Washington 1933), 593-620.
4) Massachusetts State Archives, General Court Records, Vol. XII, 107.
5) Benning Wentworth to the Board of Trade, IV, 548-9
6) William Slade, Jr. Vermont State Papers, (Middlebury, 1823), 13-16 lists all Wentworth’s grants.
2) Indian Occupation of Vermont (July 1965)
By: Gordon M. Day
This source explores the question of Native American presence in Vermont. It had been widely accepted that there was not a large Native American presence in Vermont in 1749 when Wentworth began giving land grants. Day provides evidence that the Missisquoi tribe were possible occupants of the area, along with the Mohican tribe (though that is still an open question). He also makes a compelling case of the Schaghticokes occupying Vermont as refugees in the wake of defeat during King Phillip’s war. We do not want to completely ignore the Native American perspective of the New Hampshire land grants and the early settlement of Vermont. This article has given us a launching point to include some Native American perspectives throughout out the pages. Undergraduate students interested in Native American history can use this not well talked about question of the Indian presence in Vermont as a paper topic. Hopefully our site can be a launching point for further, in-depth research on the topic.
3) Two Hundred Years in the Hartland Church (January 1962)
By: Virginia Sutherland Bail
Bail explores the religious culture of Vermont prior to and after the American Revolution. Bail focuses more post revolution groups as they make their way onto the Vermont Grants. The religious freedoms built into the Vermont Constitution were extensive, making religious pluralism common. That did not come without its issues, as many small groups of Congregationalists such as the Protestants, Baptists, and Quakers competed for political power. Even with smaller religious groups quarreling over old issues, Bail claims, “the principles of toleration and freedom of worship, incorporated in the constitutions of the United States and Vermont, are debts we owe this new liberalism (18).” Therefore, the post revolution and U.S. and Vermont legislatures had turned their attention away from British occupation and towards the churches and the practices of religion (18). This article will be very useful for Section III of our project when we explore the actual secession of Vermont Republic and its constitution.
Primary Sources that will be used to further the analysis of this sources include:
1) Reason, the Only Oracle of Man. By: Ethan Allen
2) The Vermont Republic Constitution, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/vt01.asp.
There are also other useful resources that are within the footnotes of the article, such as the history of the Baptists in Vermont recorded by Rev. Henry Crocker.
4) Vermont Attitudes toward Slavery: The Need for a Closer Look (1977).
By: Kevin J. Graffagnino
This work explores the strong anti-slavery movement within Vermont and how the constitution of the Vermont reflects anti-slavery sentiments.
Primary Sources that will be used to further the analysis of this sources include:
1) The Vermont Republic Constitution, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/vt01.asp.
5) Bennington and the Green Mountain Boys (1996)
By: Robert E. Shalhope
6) The New Hampshire State Papers
http://sos.nh.gov/Papers.aspx