Northern Vermont In The War Of 1812

Vermont played a critical role in the War of 1812. Burlington was a significant military base and harbor for American vessels, but history isn't just about the larger hubs of activity. From Swanton to Isle La Motte, many smaller communities in northern Vermont played a key role in the war. Local militia--composed of farmers, blacksmiths and merchants--came from all over the northern border communities of the state to contribute to the war effort. When towns got the statewide order to muster, timing depended on the occupations of those called to duty, the distance they needed to march or sail, the unpredictable weather conditions and the condition of the roads. Local historian Jason Barney uncovers the unique stories of border smuggling, daring raids and everyday struggle.

Northern Vermont played a pivotal role in the American Revolution. While the larger campaigns such as the Taking of Fort Ticonderoga, the Quebec Invasion of 1775 and The Battle of Valcour Island have received appropriate historical attention, there were other vital actions in the area as well. Benedict Arnold and Benjamin Franklin spent significant time in the Champlain Valley. George Washington kept a keen eye on events in the region as raiding parties descended upon numerous Vermont communities. The isolated waters of Missisquoi Bay were as vital as any waterway in America, and the Lake Champlain islands were some of the most strategic territory in the thirteen colonies. Author and local historian Jason Barney exposes the details and explores how small towns were impacted by invading British armies from Quebec.

Ebenezer Allen was born during political instability and hardships in an unknown frontier. He matured during the tipping point of the American Revolution as an invincible leader who personified patriotism. Unlike his better-known cousins, Ebenezer was a skilled commando and combat veteran in Warner's Regiment and Herrick's Rangers. Following the capture of a British rear-guard force in 1777, Captain Allen took leave of his regiment and wrote an emancipation statement for a captured enslaved woman and her child. The document, which he filed with the Bennington town clerk, read, It is not right in the sight of God to keep slaves. Join historian and Vermont native Glenn Fay as he recounts how Colonel Allen became the forefather and elected legislator of two towns and one of the most prominent men in Vermont.

The search for an African American community in rural Vermont

"Repeopling Vermont: The Paradox of Development in the Twentieth Century, by historian Paul Searls, traces two distinct but interrelated stories to illuminate the fundamental contradictions and ironies that defined Vermont in the twentieth century. One is the story of a group of Swedish immigrants who settled in and around Landgrove in the 1890s and their descendants. The other is the story of Samuel R. Ogden, who beginning in 1929 purchased most of the buildings in the main village of Landgrove and set out to revitalize the town. Ogden succeeded in that project and subsequently became an important public servant to Vermont; he was instrumental in the growth of the ski industry, and was a founder of both Vermont Life magazine and the Vermont Natural Resources Council. These intertwined stories reveal the central paradox of Vermont in the twentieth century. The state's leaders simultaneously saw Vermont's overwhelmingly rural character as both a distressing problem in need of a solution, and the state's greatest asset. But their efforts to preserve Vermont's precious rural heritage, it's human and physical landscapes, while at the same time improving the state, also put that same way of life in peril. Those developments continue to reverberate throughout Vermont in the twenty-first century, shaping the experience of everyone who lives in or visits the Green Mountain State today"--

During America's Early Republic, the pastoral villages and forests of Vermont were anything but peaceful. Conflict raged along the Canadian border, as international tensions prompted Thomas Jefferson to ban American exports to France and Great Britain. Some Vermonters turned to smuggling. Federal seizure of a boat called the Black Snake" went deadly wrong--three men were killed that day, and another died later in the state's first hanging execution. The outbreak of the War of 1812 brought thousands of troops, along with drunkenness, disease and a general disregard of civil rights, including the imposition of extra-legal military trials. Using his extensive knowledge of the law, author Gary Shattuck sheds new light on this riotous era."