WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.100 If the state of Vermont was a person, I feel 00:00:02.100 --> 00:00:06.580 like they'd be, you know, that quiet friend who 00:00:06.580 --> 00:00:08.800 knits you sweaters. Right, the one who drinks 00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:12.199 herbal tea and is in bed by nine. Exactly. But. 00:00:12.300 --> 00:00:14.400 What if you found out that same quiet friend 00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:18.079 used to be like a heavily armed rogue spy? A 00:00:18.079 --> 00:00:20.640 spy who overthrew governments. Right. And played 00:00:20.640 --> 00:00:23.739 superpowers against each other and sparked these 00:00:23.739 --> 00:00:26.660 bizarre real estate wars. It's just the ultimate 00:00:26.660 --> 00:00:29.100 historical paradox. I mean, we look at the Green 00:00:29.100 --> 00:00:32.320 Mountain State today and we see this serene, 00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:35.179 unchanging New England tranquility. Yeah, lots 00:00:35.179 --> 00:00:38.460 of maple syrup and fall foliage. Exactly. But 00:00:38.460 --> 00:00:41.600 the reality is that landscape was forged in absolute 00:00:41.600 --> 00:00:45.820 It was a rebellion and constant dramatic reinvention. 00:00:46.060 --> 00:00:48.719 Well, welcome to today's deep dive. Our mission 00:00:48.719 --> 00:00:51.020 today is to take you on a journey through a really 00:00:51.020 --> 00:00:53.719 fascinating source text, which is the Wikipedia 00:00:53.719 --> 00:00:55.880 article on the history of Vermont. And you really 00:00:55.880 --> 00:00:58.060 need to prepare yourself. Oh, yeah. We are going 00:00:58.060 --> 00:01:00.659 to uncover some major aha moments that will just 00:01:00.659 --> 00:01:02.859 absolutely shatter your assumptions about American 00:01:02.859 --> 00:01:05.299 history. So we're going to dive right in, because 00:01:05.299 --> 00:01:08.200 before we even get to the human rebels, we have 00:01:08.200 --> 00:01:10.060 to look at the ground they were standing on. 00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:13.680 Yeah, the geography itself. holds these secrets 00:01:13.680 --> 00:01:17.260 that basically dictated the state's entire historical 00:01:17.260 --> 00:01:20.159 trajectory. And it starts with a massive geographical 00:01:20.159 --> 00:01:22.879 anomaly. I'm going to throw two words at you 00:01:22.879 --> 00:01:24.980 listening to this that you would just never associate 00:01:24.980 --> 00:01:27.879 with the middle of a landlocked mountain range. 00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:30.450 Go for it. Beluga whales. I know. It sounds like 00:01:30.450 --> 00:01:32.849 a misprint in the text. It really does. But the 00:01:32.849 --> 00:01:35.109 source notes that the fossilized bones of beluga 00:01:35.109 --> 00:01:39.409 whales, along with the shells of saltwater mollusks, 00:01:39.709 --> 00:01:42.390 have been excavated right in the Lake Champlain 00:01:42.390 --> 00:01:44.909 region. Right in Vermont. I'm just trying to 00:01:44.909 --> 00:01:47.390 picture the physics of this. How does a marine 00:01:47.390 --> 00:01:50.909 mammal end up swimming over what is now dry mountainous 00:01:50.909 --> 00:01:53.489 land? Well, it comes down to the sheer, almost 00:01:53.489 --> 00:01:55.670 incomprehensible weight of the glaciers during 00:01:55.670 --> 00:01:57.950 the last ice age. Like, how heavy are we talking? 00:01:58.129 --> 00:02:00.170 We are talking about ice sheets that were up 00:02:00.170 --> 00:02:04.090 to two miles thick. Wow. Two miles of solid ice. 00:02:04.469 --> 00:02:07.219 Yeah. And that immense weight actually depressed 00:02:07.219 --> 00:02:09.840 the Earth's crust. It physically pushed the bedrock 00:02:09.840 --> 00:02:12.539 down so far that when the glaciers finally began 00:02:12.539 --> 00:02:15.620 to melt, the land was essentially dented. Dented. 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:18.120 Exactly. It hadn't bounced back yet. So ocean 00:02:18.120 --> 00:02:20.360 water simply rushed into that massive depression, 00:02:20.659 --> 00:02:23.360 creating this huge inland inlet called the Champlain 00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:27.060 Sea. The Earth was physically dented. That is 00:02:27.060 --> 00:02:29.860 wild to me. It is. And the melting glaciers didn't 00:02:29.860 --> 00:02:32.139 just invite the ocean in, they also formed these 00:02:32.139 --> 00:02:34.800 temporary water connections to the west toward 00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:37.419 the modern Great Lakes region. Oh, which allowed 00:02:37.419 --> 00:02:40.319 Western freshwater fish to migrate into the region 00:02:40.319 --> 00:02:42.919 as the saltwater eventually receded. Right, as 00:02:42.919 --> 00:02:46.139 the land slowly rebounded. And that specific 00:02:46.139 --> 00:02:48.520 geological mechanism is the reason why Vermont 00:02:48.520 --> 00:02:52.039 today boasts 78 native fish species. That's a 00:02:52.039 --> 00:02:53.800 lot of fish. It's more than any other New England 00:02:53.800 --> 00:02:56.080 state. Yeah. And half of those are actually Western 00:02:56.080 --> 00:02:58.960 in origin. So the landscape was this chaotic, 00:02:59.219 --> 00:03:02.120 diverse melting pot thousands of years before 00:03:02.120 --> 00:03:04.139 humans even entered the picture. But, you know, 00:03:04.259 --> 00:03:07.319 when humans did arrive, the region became a vital 00:03:07.319 --> 00:03:10.659 contested space. The sources detail the Archaic 00:03:10.659 --> 00:03:14.039 and Woodland periods, which weren't just empty 00:03:14.039 --> 00:03:16.159 eras. Not at all. We're talking about thousands 00:03:16.159 --> 00:03:18.620 of years of evolving indigenous settlements. 00:03:18.860 --> 00:03:21.900 Right. Complex trade networks. You had the Abenaki 00:03:21.900 --> 00:03:24.860 and Mohican tribes and later the formidable Iroquois 00:03:24.860 --> 00:03:27.580 Mohawks who pushed the smaller tribes out. And 00:03:27.580 --> 00:03:31.409 then... we get to 1609. Right. A French explorer 00:03:31.409 --> 00:03:34.689 named Samuel de Champlain rose into this highly 00:03:34.689 --> 00:03:37.050 dynamic ecosystem. He looks at the mountains, 00:03:37.750 --> 00:03:40.270 names the region Verdemont Green Mountain, and 00:03:40.270 --> 00:03:42.110 then proceeds to make a decision that alters 00:03:42.110 --> 00:03:44.639 the fate of the entire continent. Right. So to 00:03:44.639 --> 00:03:47.539 aid and impress his new Abenaki allies, Champlain 00:03:47.539 --> 00:03:50.319 uses an archibus, which is like an early matchlock 00:03:50.319 --> 00:03:52.520 firearm. Yeah, very early gun. And he uses it 00:03:52.520 --> 00:03:55.020 to shoot and kill an Iroquois chief during a 00:03:55.020 --> 00:03:57.340 sturmish. OK, let's unpack this, because that 00:03:57.340 --> 00:03:59.460 is like stepping into a local bar fight to help 00:03:59.460 --> 00:04:01.860 a buddy, only to realize you just punched the 00:04:01.860 --> 00:04:03.879 boss of the biggest organized crime syndicate 00:04:03.879 --> 00:04:05.719 on the continent. That's a great way to put it. 00:04:05.800 --> 00:04:09.060 You didn't just win a fistfight. You put a permanent 00:04:09.060 --> 00:04:12.780 lethal target on your back for generations. You 00:04:12.780 --> 00:04:14.900 really could make a very strong argument that 00:04:14.900 --> 00:04:17.639 this single gunshot is the ultimate butterfly 00:04:17.639 --> 00:04:19.600 effect in North American history. Because it 00:04:19.600 --> 00:04:22.060 wasn't just a minor skirmish. No. That fatal 00:04:22.060 --> 00:04:25.040 shot by Champlain created a permanent bitter 00:04:25.040 --> 00:04:28.160 enmity between the Iroquois Confederacy and the 00:04:28.160 --> 00:04:30.480 French. And the Iroquois were not a group you 00:04:30.480 --> 00:04:34.209 wanted as an enemy. Exactly. If we look at the 00:04:34.209 --> 00:04:36.750 causality here, the Iroquois were an incredibly 00:04:36.750 --> 00:04:40.170 sophisticated military and political force. Having 00:04:40.170 --> 00:04:42.589 them as a permanent enemy meant the French had 00:04:42.589 --> 00:04:44.569 to constantly fortify their settlements. They 00:04:44.569 --> 00:04:47.209 were just bleeding resources. They couldn't expand 00:04:47.209 --> 00:04:49.930 easily, and they fought this grueling guerrilla 00:04:49.930 --> 00:04:54.160 war for decades. Ultimately, this enmity heavily 00:04:54.160 --> 00:04:56.500 contributed to the French losing the bulk of 00:04:56.500 --> 00:04:58.680 their new world possessions. Including Vermont? 00:04:58.959 --> 00:05:00.480 Including Vermont, right at the end of the French 00:05:00.480 --> 00:05:03.899 and Indian War in 1763. So one shot echoes through 00:05:03.899 --> 00:05:06.079 a century and a half, ending with the British 00:05:06.079 --> 00:05:09.379 taking control. But reading through our sources, 00:05:09.579 --> 00:05:11.319 the defeat of the French didn't exactly bring 00:05:11.319 --> 00:05:14.139 peace to Vermont. No, it just created a massive 00:05:14.139 --> 00:05:16.480 power vacuum. Which brings us to a period that 00:05:16.480 --> 00:05:19.379 sounds less like a textbook and more like a mob 00:05:19.379 --> 00:05:22.050 turf war. Yeah, the French threat was gone, so 00:05:22.050 --> 00:05:23.910 the land was suddenly opened up for colonial 00:05:23.910 --> 00:05:26.670 settlement. But there was this massive bureaucratic 00:05:26.670 --> 00:05:29.329 collision. Over who actually owned it? Right. 00:05:29.970 --> 00:05:32.310 The governor of New Hampshire, a guy named Benning 00:05:32.310 --> 00:05:36.750 Wentworth, started issuing land grants. 135 of 00:05:36.750 --> 00:05:39.310 them, in fact. Wow. He was selling off parcels 00:05:39.310 --> 00:05:41.470 of land to settlers who wanted to build farms. 00:05:41.689 --> 00:05:44.129 But the province of New York looked at their 00:05:44.129 --> 00:05:46.930 maps and claimed the exact same territory. OK, 00:05:46.930 --> 00:05:48.949 let me make sure I have this straight. Two different 00:05:48.949 --> 00:05:51.649 British colonies are selling the exact same plots 00:05:51.649 --> 00:05:53.889 of land to different people. Exactly. It was 00:05:53.889 --> 00:05:56.810 a total mess. So King George III eventually steps 00:05:56.810 --> 00:06:00.470 in. And in 1764, he signs an order giving the 00:06:00.470 --> 00:06:03.209 land entirely to New York. Just unilaterally 00:06:03.209 --> 00:06:05.290 giving it to New York. Yeah. And his reasoning 00:06:05.290 --> 00:06:08.230 was largely strategic. He wanted the wealthy 00:06:08.230 --> 00:06:11.860 established colony of New York to act as a conservative 00:06:11.860 --> 00:06:15.620 buffer. A buffer against who? Against both the 00:06:15.620 --> 00:06:18.220 rapidly expanding New Hampshire settlers and 00:06:18.220 --> 00:06:19.959 the remaining French -speaking Catholics up in 00:06:19.959 --> 00:06:25.920 Quebec. But the execution of that order was just 00:06:25.920 --> 00:06:28.420 disastrous. Disastrous because New York decided 00:06:28.420 --> 00:06:31.579 this ruling applied retroactively. Right, which 00:06:31.579 --> 00:06:34.420 is insane. Imagine you're a settler, you bought 00:06:34.420 --> 00:06:37.000 a deed from New Hampshire, you spent years doing 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:39.959 the back -breaking work of clearing rocky mountainous 00:06:39.959 --> 00:06:42.399 land to build a farm, and suddenly a New York 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:45.259 judge tells you your deed is completely invalid. 00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:47.759 You're technically a squatter on your own land. 00:06:47.860 --> 00:06:49.939 Yeah, and you have to buy your own farm back 00:06:49.939 --> 00:06:53.810 from some wealthy New York speculator. The resentment 00:06:53.810 --> 00:06:56.449 was visceral. And New York didn't just send polite 00:06:56.449 --> 00:06:58.829 letters. They started sending armed sheriffs 00:06:58.829 --> 00:07:01.230 and judges to forcibly dispossess the settlers 00:07:01.230 --> 00:07:04.050 who refused to pay twice. And this is where Ethan 00:07:04.050 --> 00:07:06.509 Allen and the Green Mountain Boys enter the picture. 00:07:06.569 --> 00:07:09.189 Oh, yeah. They formed an armed militia to physically 00:07:09.189 --> 00:07:12.209 block New York authorities. There's this incredible 00:07:12.209 --> 00:07:14.089 moment detailed in the text at the Breakenridge 00:07:14.089 --> 00:07:16.490 Farm in Bennington. Such a cinematic standoff. 00:07:16.670 --> 00:07:19.790 It really is. A New York sheriff shows up with 00:07:19.790 --> 00:07:23.269 a massive posse of 750 men to evict a farmer. 00:07:23.810 --> 00:07:26.629 And the local residents organize an armed body 00:07:26.629 --> 00:07:29.930 of 300 men, stare down this massive sheriff's 00:07:29.930 --> 00:07:32.750 posse, and tell the sheriff, if you attempt it, 00:07:32.970 --> 00:07:35.129 you are a dead man. Just completely unflinching. 00:07:35.329 --> 00:07:38.310 Right. And the sheriff, looking at 300 rifles 00:07:38.310 --> 00:07:40.529 pointed at him, just turns around and marches 00:07:40.529 --> 00:07:44.129 back to Albany. It was organized violent resistance 00:07:44.129 --> 00:07:48.459 to legal authority. And by 1777, these settlers 00:07:48.459 --> 00:07:51.160 realized that neither New York nor the British 00:07:51.160 --> 00:07:54.220 Crown was going to protect their property or 00:07:54.220 --> 00:07:56.740 their lives, really. So they took a wildly radical 00:07:56.740 --> 00:07:59.339 step. They severed ties with everyone and declared 00:07:59.339 --> 00:08:01.839 themselves an independent republic. They originally 00:08:01.839 --> 00:08:04.360 called themselves New Connecticut, right? Before 00:08:04.360 --> 00:08:06.720 they switched to Vermont. Yes. And the scene 00:08:06.720 --> 00:08:08.480 where they actually draft their constitution 00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:11.439 is straight out of a thriller. They are huddled 00:08:11.439 --> 00:08:14.079 in the Windsor Tavern owned by a man named Elijah 00:08:14.079 --> 00:08:16.839 West. And there's a huge storm outside. A violent 00:08:16.839 --> 00:08:19.740 raging thunderstorm. They are debating the foundation 00:08:19.740 --> 00:08:22.319 of a new nation for four days while the storm 00:08:22.319 --> 00:08:24.829 just pounds the roof. What's fascinating here 00:08:24.829 --> 00:08:27.550 is the sheer audacity of what they produced in 00:08:27.550 --> 00:08:30.230 that tavern. The Constitution of Vermont was 00:08:30.230 --> 00:08:32.470 astonishingly ahead of its time. It really was. 00:08:32.570 --> 00:08:34.950 It was the first written constitution in North 00:08:34.950 --> 00:08:38.809 America to comprehensively abolish adult slavery. 00:08:38.950 --> 00:08:42.610 Which is a huge milestone. Huge. It also granted 00:08:42.610 --> 00:08:45.149 voting rights to men, regardless of whether they 00:08:45.149 --> 00:08:47.580 owned land. which was a massive departure from 00:08:47.580 --> 00:08:49.940 the aristocratic norms of the era. And it mandated 00:08:49.940 --> 00:08:52.179 the creation of public schools. Now, our source 00:08:52.179 --> 00:08:54.379 importantly notes that violations of the slavery 00:08:54.379 --> 00:08:56.840 abolition did persist for some time. It wasn't 00:08:56.840 --> 00:08:58.879 an instant utopia. Right. We have to acknowledge 00:08:58.879 --> 00:09:01.299 that. But the legal framework they laid down 00:09:01.299 --> 00:09:04.779 in that storm was undeniably radical. Here's 00:09:04.779 --> 00:09:06.820 where it gets really interesting, though. We 00:09:06.820 --> 00:09:09.639 have this romantic, heroic narrative of Ethan 00:09:09.639 --> 00:09:12.600 Allen and his boys fighting for liberty and equality 00:09:12.600 --> 00:09:15.970 in a thunderstorm. But I have to ask. Were the 00:09:15.970 --> 00:09:18.769 Green Mountain Boys truly patriotic visionaries 00:09:18.769 --> 00:09:21.230 or were they essentially a heavily armed real 00:09:21.230 --> 00:09:24.149 estate lobby whose primary goal was just protecting 00:09:24.149 --> 00:09:27.250 their property deeds? Well, history rarely deals 00:09:27.250 --> 00:09:29.429 in pure altruism and this is a perfect example 00:09:29.429 --> 00:09:33.090 of that. Their primary catalyst was absolutely 00:09:33.090 --> 00:09:35.889 the protection of their land investments from 00:09:35.889 --> 00:09:37.850 New York speculators. They wanted to keep their 00:09:37.850 --> 00:09:41.610 farms. Exactly. But in the process of defending 00:09:41.610 --> 00:09:44.029 those private financial interests, they were 00:09:44.029 --> 00:09:47.029 forced to articulate a philosophy of self -governance 00:09:47.029 --> 00:09:49.610 and individual rights. They needed a justification. 00:09:49.970 --> 00:09:53.149 Yes, a legal and moral justification for their 00:09:53.149 --> 00:09:56.070 rebellion. So the real estate dispute was the 00:09:56.070 --> 00:09:58.490 spark. The radical republic was the resulting 00:09:58.490 --> 00:10:00.970 fire. So put yourself in their shoes for a second. 00:10:01.269 --> 00:10:03.570 You've declared independence. You have this incredibly 00:10:03.570 --> 00:10:06.480 progressive constitution. But you are entirely 00:10:06.480 --> 00:10:09.360 alone. So long. They're an unrecognized rogue 00:10:09.360 --> 00:10:12.600 republic surrounded by enemies. You've got a 00:10:12.600 --> 00:10:15.480 hostile New York to the west, the massive British 00:10:15.480 --> 00:10:18.360 Empire to the north and a Continental Congress 00:10:18.360 --> 00:10:20.720 that absolutely refuses to acknowledge your existence 00:10:20.720 --> 00:10:23.460 because New York is blocking your entry. Survival 00:10:23.460 --> 00:10:26.120 in that geopolitical pressure cooker required 00:10:26.120 --> 00:10:29.000 incredible diplomatic gymnastics because on one 00:10:29.000 --> 00:10:31.720 hand, Vermont forces were crucial to the American 00:10:31.720 --> 00:10:33.919 Revolution. Take the Battle of Bennington, for 00:10:33.919 --> 00:10:36.679 example. General John Stark commands the rebel 00:10:36.679 --> 00:10:39.159 forces to fight to the death. Oh, he gets that 00:10:39.159 --> 00:10:42.139 famous speech. Right, a terrifying speech. He 00:10:42.139 --> 00:10:44.879 points at the British and the Tories, who were 00:10:44.879 --> 00:10:47.600 American colonists loyal to the crown, and tells 00:10:47.600 --> 00:10:51.070 his men, they are ours. Or this night... Molly 00:10:51.070 --> 00:10:53.850 Stark sleeps a widow. Jills. And they absolutely 00:10:53.850 --> 00:10:56.909 crush the British column. A massive victory that 00:10:56.909 --> 00:10:58.769 proves their military worth. So you'd think they 00:10:58.769 --> 00:11:01.269 are the ultimate American patriots. But then 00:11:01.269 --> 00:11:03.889 the text details something called the Hull Demand 00:11:03.889 --> 00:11:06.570 Affair? This is where it gets really murky. Yeah, 00:11:06.710 --> 00:11:09.230 because the leaders of Vermont... including the 00:11:09.230 --> 00:11:11.950 Allen brothers themselves, were secretly negotiating 00:11:11.950 --> 00:11:13.970 with Frederick Haldeman, the British governor 00:11:13.970 --> 00:11:16.649 of Quebec. They were actively discussing a separate 00:11:16.649 --> 00:11:19.470 peace treaty and the distinct possibility of 00:11:19.470 --> 00:11:21.409 Vermont returning to the British Empire as a 00:11:21.409 --> 00:11:25.029 province. So what does this all mean? Was the 00:11:25.029 --> 00:11:27.470 Haldeman default a legitimate act of treason 00:11:27.470 --> 00:11:29.830 against the American Revolution, or was it just 00:11:29.830 --> 00:11:33.129 an incredibly brilliant geopolitical poker bluff 00:11:33.129 --> 00:11:36.370 by a vulnerable republic trying to survive? If 00:11:36.370 --> 00:11:39.309 we connect this to the bigger picture. You really 00:11:39.309 --> 00:11:41.669 see the genius of their adaptability. Look at 00:11:41.669 --> 00:11:44.509 the mechanics of the bluff. For the British perspective, 00:11:44.990 --> 00:11:47.730 if Vermont becomes a friendly province, an American 00:11:47.730 --> 00:11:49.990 invasion of Canada is much less likely. Makes 00:11:49.990 --> 00:11:53.250 sense. But from Vermont's perspective, negotiating 00:11:53.250 --> 00:11:57.049 with the British achieves two vital things. First, 00:11:57.450 --> 00:11:59.549 it keeps the British Army from invading their 00:11:59.549 --> 00:12:01.669 completely unprotected northern border. Because 00:12:01.669 --> 00:12:04.529 they're talking peace. Right. And second, it 00:12:04.529 --> 00:12:06.690 absolutely terrifies the Continental Congress. 00:12:06.889 --> 00:12:09.710 Oh, because of the location? Yes. If Britain 00:12:09.710 --> 00:12:12.389 establishes a staging ground in Vermont, they 00:12:12.389 --> 00:12:14.730 have a direct dagger into the Hudson Valley to 00:12:14.730 --> 00:12:17.490 split the colonies in half. Wow. So Vermont was 00:12:17.490 --> 00:12:20.470 using the threat of treason as leverage, basically 00:12:20.470 --> 00:12:22.529 signaling to the United States, if you don't 00:12:22.529 --> 00:12:24.710 let us in, we might just hand the enemy the keys 00:12:24.710 --> 00:12:27.490 to the continent. Exactly. And it worked. It 00:12:27.490 --> 00:12:30.889 did. They survived the war. And in 1791, Vermont 00:12:30.889 --> 00:12:33.289 is finally admitted to the Union as the 14th 00:12:33.289 --> 00:12:35.750 state. But even that admission is a calculated 00:12:35.750 --> 00:12:37.889 political chess move by the rest of the country. 00:12:37.990 --> 00:12:40.029 Right. Because Alexander Hamilton pushed for 00:12:40.029 --> 00:12:42.490 Vermont's admission specifically as a free state 00:12:42.490 --> 00:12:44.629 counterbalance to the anticipated admission of 00:12:44.629 --> 00:12:46.629 Kentucky, which was going to be a slave state. 00:12:46.830 --> 00:12:49.210 which really highlights how Vermont's fierce 00:12:49.210 --> 00:12:51.730 independence was immediately integrated into 00:12:51.730 --> 00:12:54.590 the broader volatile national politics of the 00:12:54.590 --> 00:12:57.110 United States. And once they were securely a 00:12:57.110 --> 00:13:00.289 state, that same survival instinct, that constant 00:13:00.289 --> 00:13:03.629 need to adapt to unforgiving circumstances shifted 00:13:03.629 --> 00:13:07.120 from geopolitics to the economy. Because farming 00:13:07.120 --> 00:13:10.019 traditional crops in Vermont's rocky, thin soil 00:13:10.019 --> 00:13:11.840 is incredibly tough. So what do they do? They 00:13:11.840 --> 00:13:14.179 pivot to sheep. Lots of sheep. Specifically, 00:13:14.519 --> 00:13:16.960 merino sheep, which were introduced around 1812. 00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:20.580 These sheep could graze on steep, rocky hillsides 00:13:20.580 --> 00:13:22.940 that a plow couldn't even touch. This sparks 00:13:22.940 --> 00:13:26.799 a massive boom and bust cycle. By 1837, there 00:13:26.799 --> 00:13:28.759 are one million sheep in the state of Vermont. 00:13:29.100 --> 00:13:31.700 The hills were literally stripped of trees and 00:13:31.700 --> 00:13:35.240 just covered in grazing flocks. Wool prices soared 00:13:35.240 --> 00:13:39.139 to 57 cents a pound, creating immense local wealth. 00:13:39.320 --> 00:13:42.120 That's a huge boom. But as is the nature of boom 00:13:42.120 --> 00:13:44.980 economies, the mechanics of progress caught up 00:13:44.980 --> 00:13:47.740 with them. The completion of the Erie Canal and 00:13:47.740 --> 00:13:50.159 the expansion of the railroads suddenly connected 00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:53.659 the eastern markets to the vast, flat, incredibly 00:13:53.659 --> 00:13:56.559 efficient lands of the American West. Oh, right. 00:13:56.679 --> 00:13:59.039 The Vermont sheep industry simply couldn't compete 00:13:59.039 --> 00:14:02.350 with western scale. The market crash, dropping 00:14:02.350 --> 00:14:06.029 wool prices to 25 cents a pound and just devastating 00:14:06.029 --> 00:14:09.110 the local economy. So thousands of young men 00:14:09.110 --> 00:14:11.580 had to leave the state to find work. But the 00:14:11.580 --> 00:14:14.200 ones who stayed behind turned inward, fiercely 00:14:14.200 --> 00:14:16.299 protecting their remaining local values. And 00:14:16.299 --> 00:14:18.379 that set them on a direct cultural collision 00:14:18.379 --> 00:14:20.019 course with the rest of the country. Remember 00:14:20.019 --> 00:14:23.340 that 1777 constitution that banned adult slavery? 00:14:23.899 --> 00:14:26.679 By the 1850s, that sentiment hadn't just survived. 00:14:26.759 --> 00:14:29.879 It had hardened into intense abolitionism. In 00:14:29.879 --> 00:14:33.159 1854, the Vermont Senate releases a blistering 00:14:33.159 --> 00:14:36.039 report on slavery, questioning how any legitimate 00:14:36.039 --> 00:14:38.080 government could favor the rights of one people 00:14:38.080 --> 00:14:40.929 over another. And the reaction from the pro -slavery 00:14:40.929 --> 00:14:44.429 South was visceral. The Georgia legislature was 00:14:44.429 --> 00:14:47.169 so infuriated by Vermont's moral stance that 00:14:47.169 --> 00:14:50.210 they actually passed a sarcastic resolution proposing 00:14:50.210 --> 00:14:52.870 that the president tow Vermont out to sea. I 00:14:52.870 --> 00:14:55.009 literally cannot get over that image. It's absurd. 00:14:55.309 --> 00:14:58.049 Georgia legally proposing to put a giant rope 00:14:58.049 --> 00:15:00.370 around the state and just yank it into the Atlantic 00:15:00.370 --> 00:15:03.190 Ocean. But Vermont stayed put. They did. They 00:15:03.190 --> 00:15:05.309 backed up their rhetoric during the Civil War, 00:15:05.490 --> 00:15:09.450 sending over 28 ,000 volunteers. But as the 19th 00:15:09.450 --> 00:15:12.250 century rolls into the 20th, the changing economy 00:15:12.250 --> 00:15:14.909 forces a demographic shift. And this triggers 00:15:14.909 --> 00:15:17.809 one of the most drastic cultural and political 00:15:17.809 --> 00:15:20.710 180 -degree turns of any state in the country. 00:15:20.850 --> 00:15:22.769 Let's talk about that. The demographic foundation 00:15:22.769 --> 00:15:25.889 of the state began to fundamentally alter. As 00:15:25.889 --> 00:15:28.750 the agricultural dominance faded, industrialization 00:15:28.750 --> 00:15:31.980 took hold. Starting in the mid -1800s and accelerating 00:15:31.980 --> 00:15:34.879 later, Vermont saw a major influx of immigrants. 00:15:35.039 --> 00:15:37.700 We're talking Irish, Scottish, Italian, and French 00:15:37.700 --> 00:15:39.860 -Canadian immigrants. Right. They arrived in 00:15:39.860 --> 00:15:41.840 massive numbers to work in the booming granite 00:15:41.840 --> 00:15:44.399 industry in places like Barr or to build the 00:15:44.399 --> 00:15:46.740 rail lines and work in textile factories. And 00:15:46.740 --> 00:15:48.700 whenever you have massive demographic shifts, 00:15:48.759 --> 00:15:51.899 you get friction. The sources detail the intense 00:15:51.899 --> 00:15:54.899 social tensions that arose as the Old Guard clashed 00:15:54.899 --> 00:15:57.460 with the new arrivals. And the source is very 00:15:57.460 --> 00:15:59.700 clear about the dark side of this friction. Yeah, 00:15:59.700 --> 00:16:02.240 we have to neutrally report what the text says 00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:06.720 here. In the 1920s, Ku Klux Klan membership skyrocketed 00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:09.620 in Vermont, specifically targeting French -Canadian 00:16:09.620 --> 00:16:12.620 Catholic immigrants. And in the 1930s, the state 00:16:12.620 --> 00:16:15.259 engaged in a eugenics project, which was a state 00:16:15.259 --> 00:16:18.139 -sponsored survey and sterilization effort. Exactly. 00:16:18.240 --> 00:16:20.940 And it explicitly targeted vulnerable populations, 00:16:21.440 --> 00:16:23.059 including Native Americans, French Canadians 00:16:23.059 --> 00:16:25.980 and Afro -Americans. It is a stark, dark reminder 00:16:25.980 --> 00:16:29.100 that Vermont was not immune to the Native and 00:16:29.100 --> 00:16:31.179 prejudice that swept much of the country during 00:16:31.179 --> 00:16:34.299 that era. No, they weren't. The Protestant rural 00:16:34.299 --> 00:16:36.980 Anglo -American establishment felt deeply threatened 00:16:36.980 --> 00:16:39.360 by the growing Catholic and immigrant populations. 00:16:39.639 --> 00:16:42.480 And they were able to act on those fears because 00:16:42.480 --> 00:16:45.440 this old establishment held absolute political 00:16:45.440 --> 00:16:47.720 control. Total control. From the founding of 00:16:47.720 --> 00:16:51.759 the Republican Party in 1854 all the way to 1958, 00:16:52.580 --> 00:16:55.220 Vermont was arguably the most reliably Republican 00:16:55.220 --> 00:16:58.039 state in the nation. They did not vote for a 00:16:58.039 --> 00:17:00.559 single Democratic presidential candidate during 00:17:00.559 --> 00:17:02.860 that entire century. A hundred years. And they 00:17:02.860 --> 00:17:05.940 kept a tight lid on state politics using an unwritten 00:17:05.940 --> 00:17:08.019 gentleman's agreement called the Mountain Rule. 00:17:08.500 --> 00:17:10.460 Right, because the Green Mountains physically 00:17:10.460 --> 00:17:13.349 split the state down the middle. To maintain 00:17:13.349 --> 00:17:16.329 party unity and avoid factionalism, the political 00:17:16.329 --> 00:17:18.490 elite would strictly rotate the governorship 00:17:18.490 --> 00:17:21.170 and lieutenant governor positions between candidates 00:17:21.170 --> 00:17:23.210 from the eastern side of the mountains and the 00:17:23.210 --> 00:17:26.009 western side. It was a closed, heavily guarded 00:17:26.009 --> 00:17:28.329 political loop. But you can only keep a lid on 00:17:28.329 --> 00:17:31.990 a boiling pot for so long. Exactly. By the 1960s, 00:17:32.170 --> 00:17:34.910 the demographics had shifted even further. 25 00:17:34.910 --> 00:17:37.710 % of the population was now made up of out -of 00:17:37.710 --> 00:17:40.559 -staters. A real mix of people. Yeah. counterculture 00:17:40.559 --> 00:17:42.819 back to the landers, professionals moving in 00:17:42.819 --> 00:17:45.759 for tech jobs like at IBM, and growing university 00:17:45.759 --> 00:17:48.740 populations. They brought vastly different, often 00:17:48.740 --> 00:17:51.220 more progressive voting habits. Yet the rural 00:17:51.220 --> 00:17:54.079 establishment still held total power because 00:17:54.079 --> 00:17:56.339 of how the voting districts were drawn. Every 00:17:56.339 --> 00:17:59.240 single town got one representative, regardless 00:17:59.240 --> 00:18:01.420 of how many people lived there. This raises an 00:18:01.420 --> 00:18:04.000 important question. How does a state actually 00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:06.400 change its political identity when the rules 00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:09.059 are explicitly rigged against the majority of 00:18:09.059 --> 00:18:11.519 the population? The answer had to come from the 00:18:11.519 --> 00:18:15.259 outside. In 1964, the US Supreme Court handed 00:18:15.259 --> 00:18:18.599 down a decision that forced one man, one vote 00:18:18.599 --> 00:18:21.259 redistricting on the entire country, forcing 00:18:21.259 --> 00:18:24.359 Vermont to comply. I want to make sure the absurdity 00:18:24.359 --> 00:18:28.890 of the old system is clear. Before 1964, a tiny 00:18:28.890 --> 00:18:31.430 mountain town with 50 residents had the exact 00:18:31.430 --> 00:18:34.029 same voting power in the statehouse as the entire 00:18:34.029 --> 00:18:36.730 bustling city of Burlington with tens of thousands 00:18:36.730 --> 00:18:38.609 of people. That's wild to think about. That isn't 00:18:38.609 --> 00:18:40.829 just an imbalance, that is a total chokehold 00:18:40.829 --> 00:18:43.269 on democracy. Precisely. The Supreme Court ruled 00:18:43.269 --> 00:18:45.450 that representation must be based on population, 00:18:45.549 --> 00:18:48.509 not geography. Suddenly, urban areas, which were 00:18:48.509 --> 00:18:50.609 more diverse, holding the descendants of those 00:18:50.609 --> 00:18:52.809 earlier immigrants and the new influx of out 00:18:52.809 --> 00:18:55.250 -of -staters, gained their equitable share of 00:18:55.250 --> 00:18:57.650 legislative power. It's like having this grand, 00:18:57.650 --> 00:19:01.509 historic house. The exterior frame stays exactly 00:19:01.509 --> 00:19:05.289 the same. But over decades, entirely new generations 00:19:05.289 --> 00:19:08.109 of residents move in. For a long time, the old 00:19:08.109 --> 00:19:09.809 landlord won't let them change the furniture. 00:19:10.109 --> 00:19:12.450 But the moment they get the legal right to remodel, 00:19:12.670 --> 00:19:16.470 they gut the entire interior. What stands out 00:19:16.470 --> 00:19:19.549 to you listening to this about how entirely new 00:19:19.549 --> 00:19:22.430 groups of people can redefine a place's identity 00:19:22.430 --> 00:19:24.849 from the inside out? Because the metamorphosis 00:19:24.849 --> 00:19:27.900 was profound and rapid. The state flipped from 00:19:27.900 --> 00:19:30.180 a century of absolute conservative dominance 00:19:30.180 --> 00:19:33.140 to becoming a progressive stronghold. Once the 00:19:33.140 --> 00:19:35.680 legislative power accurately reflected the population, 00:19:36.180 --> 00:19:38.079 the laws quickly followed the new values. And 00:19:38.079 --> 00:19:40.500 the source highlights a stunning list of 21st 00:19:40.500 --> 00:19:43.039 century firsts to prove that flip. Vermont became 00:19:43.039 --> 00:19:45.279 the first state to introduce civil unions for 00:19:45.279 --> 00:19:48.130 same -sex couples in 2000. Wow. It was the first 00:19:48.130 --> 00:19:50.410 to voluntarily legalize same -sex marriage through 00:19:50.410 --> 00:19:52.630 legislation, meaning the politicians actually 00:19:52.630 --> 00:19:55.029 voted for it rather than a court ordering it 00:19:55.029 --> 00:19:58.390 in 2009. Right. And in 2018, it became the first 00:19:58.390 --> 00:20:01.029 state to legalize recreational cannabis legislatively. 00:20:01.410 --> 00:20:03.930 Which perfectly encapsulates the paradox we started 00:20:03.930 --> 00:20:06.589 with at the beginning of this deep dive. The 00:20:06.589 --> 00:20:09.230 independent, somewhat rebellious streak of the 00:20:09.230 --> 00:20:12.230 Green Mountain Boys didn't disappear. It just 00:20:12.230 --> 00:20:14.829 manifested in a completely new way. Yeah, they're 00:20:14.829 --> 00:20:17.369 still comfortable being outliers. Still comfortable 00:20:17.369 --> 00:20:19.970 pushing against the national grain, exactly as 00:20:19.970 --> 00:20:21.549 they did in that thunderstorm in the Windsor 00:20:21.549 --> 00:20:25.039 Tavern in 1777. It has been such a wild journey 00:20:25.039 --> 00:20:27.240 to unpack. When you look at the whole picture, 00:20:27.240 --> 00:20:30.200 we started with ancient beluga whales swimming 00:20:30.200 --> 00:20:32.920 over what would become ski resorts. Right. We 00:20:32.920 --> 00:20:35.900 watched a French explorer's single gunshot doom 00:20:35.900 --> 00:20:39.140 an empire. We saw rogue farmers build a radical 00:20:39.140 --> 00:20:41.660 republic to protect their real estate, pivot 00:20:41.660 --> 00:20:44.579 to a booming sheep empire, and then watched an 00:20:44.579 --> 00:20:47.559 entire state totally remodel its political and 00:20:47.559 --> 00:20:49.859 cultural identity from the inside out. It really 00:20:49.859 --> 00:20:51.900 proves that history is never just a static list 00:20:51.900 --> 00:20:54.990 of dates. No, it's alive. Exactly. The places 00:20:54.990 --> 00:20:57.849 we often assume are the quietest, the most unchanging, 00:20:58.029 --> 00:21:00.190 are usually the result of centuries of fierce 00:21:00.190 --> 00:21:03.430 friction, survival, and constant reinvention. 00:21:04.069 --> 00:21:06.089 The tranquility you see today is just the current 00:21:06.089 --> 00:21:08.589 later of paint. And there is one final detail 00:21:08.589 --> 00:21:10.930 from our sources that I think perfectly captures 00:21:10.930 --> 00:21:14.670 this idea of constant quiet reinvention, and 00:21:14.670 --> 00:21:17.190 it's about the resilience of the landscape itself. 00:21:17.410 --> 00:21:19.589 The environment bouncing back. Right. In the 00:21:19.589 --> 00:21:22.769 mid 20th century, the widespread use of the pesticide 00:21:22.769 --> 00:21:26.569 DDT devastated local wildlife. But Vermont banned 00:21:26.569 --> 00:21:29.410 it in 1972, and the environment bounced back 00:21:29.410 --> 00:21:32.109 incredibly. The bear population, for instance, 00:21:32.410 --> 00:21:35.470 doubled by 2013. That's amazing. Even more amazingly, 00:21:35.789 --> 00:21:37.589 beavers had been completely wiped out of the 00:21:37.589 --> 00:21:40.089 state by trapping. They were reintroduced in 00:21:40.089 --> 00:21:43.759 1924, and they have thrived. completely rewriting 00:21:43.759 --> 00:21:46.140 the waterways and ecosystems of the state once 00:21:46.140 --> 00:21:48.180 again. The landscape, just like the people who 00:21:48.180 --> 00:21:51.079 inhabit it, refuses to stay static. It adapts, 00:21:51.180 --> 00:21:53.539 it recovers, and it physically changes the map. 00:21:53.839 --> 00:21:56.339 So as you go about your day, think about that 00:21:56.339 --> 00:21:58.740 quiet friend of yours, or maybe the quiet town 00:21:58.740 --> 00:22:01.339 you live in. What's seemingly small change happening 00:22:01.339 --> 00:22:03.839 right now, whether it's a new zoning law, a shift 00:22:03.839 --> 00:22:05.700 in who is moving to your neighborhood, or even 00:22:05.700 --> 00:22:08.119 the return of a single animal species to a local 00:22:08.119 --> 00:22:10.680 park, is going to completely rewrite the map 00:22:10.680 --> 00:22:12.960 of your own home a hundred years from today.