Ethan+Allen

Ethan Allen

Ethan Allen was born January 10, 1738. Allen was born in 1738 in Litchfield, Connecticut and was the eldest of the eight children. His parents were Joseph and Mary Allen. It is said that there is no portrait of Ethan Allen! By most accounts, he was over six feet tall, unusual for that time, and, according to contemporary evidence, was a confrontational, but he had that power to attract the most devoted and loyal followers. Ethan was well-read and articulate for a settler of the northern frontier. He was a folk hero in Vermont and became a statesman.

Allen was an early American revolutionary and guerrilla leader during the era of the Vermont Republic and the New Hampshire Grants and he made a very significant contribution to the early history of Vermont which was called the New Hampshire Grants at that time. He fought against the settlement of Vermont by the Province of New York, and then for its independence in the American Revolutionary War.

When the American Revolution started, the Green Mountain Boys and Allen supported the patriots. The Green Mountain Boys were citizens that could be called up to protect the ownership of the land in the New Hampshire Grants. Ethan Allen was its first Colonel-Commandant. The Green Mountain Boys used violence to defend their lands against the hated "Yorkers". This group of Yankee was fought against New York's claims to land in what is now Vermont. The Green Mountain Boys did not take any lives.

Allen is best known for the capture of Fort Ticonderoga at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War and his leadership of the Green Mountain Boys. The British had given Vermont to both New Hampshire and New York. In the spring of 1775, Fort Ticonderoga was captured for the American Colonies by troops led by Ethan Allen. The fort had been in British hands since the Peace of Paris in 1763. At the time of the attack on Fort Ticonderoga, it was not well guarded and it made it easy to capture the fort.

Allen was also a Deist and philosopher. He published //Reason the Only Oracle of Man//, which was a manuscript he and another friend wrote together. In 1785 Ethan Allen's //Reason the Only Oracle of Man// was published. This book showed Allen's personality.

Allen settled in Burlington, Vermont and he was married two times and had eight children. Allen concentrated on farming and writing before he died. He died February 12, 1789. People still don't know how he really died. After he died, Vermont became a part of the United States. Ethan Allen's life had a great impact upon the early history of Vermont. A statue of Allen representing Vermont is in the Sanctuary Hall in the Capitol in Washington D.C.