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Free Traveling Guides » States » Vermont History of Vermont
Vermont, situated in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America, was first inhabited by a few Algonquian-speaking tribes, including the Abenaki and the Mohican people. The Native American tribes finally settled in the area during the Woodland period, from 1000 BC to 1600 AD. The first European to arrive in Vermont was Jacques Cartier, in 1535. In the late 1600s, Vermont was claimed by France and was made a part of New France. In 1666, the French established Fort Sainte Anne on Isle La Motte, the first European settlement in Vermont, as part of the fortification of Lake Champlain, which was first claimed by French explorer Samuel de Champlain in 1609. Fort Drummer, established in the far southeast of Vermont in 1724, was the first permanent British settlement in the area. The French settlers established Fort St. Frederic in 1734, which gave them control of the New France/Vermont border region in the Lake Champlain Valley. However, in 1759, this fort was captured by a combined force of over 12,000 British provincial and regular troops, led by Sir Jeffery Amherst. The 1763 Treaty of Paris, signed after France was defeated in the Seven Years War (French and Indian War), gave control of the land of Vermont to the British. After the war, three major colonies, New York, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, laid claim to the land. This situation made New Hampshire's colonial governor, Benning Wentworth, sanction a series of 135 land grants between 1749 and 1764. The formation of New Hampshire Grants triggered a major conflict that ultimately resulted in the deaths of William French and Daniel Houghton in the infamous ‘Westminster Massacre’. The most determining event in the history of Vermont was the Battle of Bennington, fought on August 16, 1777. Vermont’s burgeoning republican government, formed after several years of political mayhem, faced challenges from New York, New Hampshire, Great Britain and the new United States. Vermont’s victory over powerful military invaders helped it to sustain its independence for nearly 14 years, before it was ultimately added to the Union as the 14th U.S. State in 1791. Vermont was home to a unicameral legislature until 1836. The American Civil War, fought between 1864 and 1885, brought a dramatic economic and social change in Vermont. The significant years in the postbellum era included 1880, when the women were allowed to vote and were granted limited suffrage for the first time in history; 1927 and 1973, when large-scale flooding caused severe damage to life and property in the state; and the year 2000, state-sanctioned benefits of marriage were provided to gay and lesbian couples in the form of civil unions. |
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