Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry Tracy Wilson, and this is actually going to be a two parter, and it is a listener request, and it is a subject that has been requested by several people throughout the years. And then recently, when I was at Dragon Con, I met a listener of ours named Terry and he asked for it too, and he was really really excited about it. Uh, and it got me thinking about it some more again. Even though it's been on the list, you know, sometimes you get reminders. And then I was thinking about whether or not it was a good topic. And in addition to listener interest, I did some very non scientific polling and I mentioned the name of this person around the office and with my friends and family, and boy was I shocked because none of them really knew much about the person that we're talking about today. Even his name is a household name that everyone knows and recognizes. Uh. If you have spent any time in Vermont, you probably know a good bit about Ethan Allen because he's very central to Vermont's story. But sadly too many his name is only associated with the Huge Furniture Company, which is no disparity to the um. Not to disparage the Huge Furniture Company, but that's sort of eclipsed any actual historical record for a lot of people, and some people even think he was a carpenter as a consequence, he was not like the furniture guy, and I'm like, not really the furniture name appropriation. Yeah, but he was a huge personality. He was a founder of Vermont, and he was a very important figure in the Revolutionary War. His story also includes some fascinating and sort of wacky side notes and some missteps, which may account for sort of why he is not a more prominent figure in American historical lore. So we are going to cover Ethan Allen in his really very fascinating life. Ethan was born on January twenty one, thirty eight in Litchfield, Connecticut. He was the oldest of eight children born to Joseph and Mary Allen, and shortly after Ethan was born, their family moved to Cardwall, Connecticut. So Ethan was the only one of the Allen children's who have been born in Lichfield. His five brothers were Hem and heber Levi, Zimri and Ira, and his two sisters were Lydia and Lucy. All of the children lived to adulthood, which, as we often comment on with surprise, is surprising. Yeah, but apparently that that Alan blood was healthy. Ethan was very into philosophy and learning as a kid, and he was eventually sent to study under Reverend Jonathan Lee and Salisbury, Connecticut to prepare for studies at Yale. He was really, by his father's plan, on track to become an educated man. However, um the world kind of put a spanner in the works. His father died shortly after this plan began, and that meant that Ethan had to care for the family farm at the age of seventeen, and his plans for higher education were pretty much cut short at that point. In seventeen fifty seven, just two years after Ethan became the head of the household, he felt the pull of duty and enlisted to fight in the French and Indian War. He wasn't called to combat, though, and he returned home unscathed. Ethan married Mary Brownson in seventeen sixty two, and he was just twenty four, and Mary was actually six years older than him, and he had met Mary because he hauled grain for her father. Uh. And this match uh does not sound like it was especially happy. So whereas Ethan was fascinated by learning, uh, he was also a bit impulsive, you know, kind of as you said, a big figure, a big personality, and he liked to drink and party a little bit. Mary is usually characterized as being very prim and quite reserved and even stern. Uh So in terms of their personalities. Of times, those kinds of things will balance out, but it seems like it really made for some conflict there. Uh. But the couple settled in Salisbury, where Ethan had partial ownership and an iron works. Despite their differences, the two had five children together over the course of their twenty year marriage. Their daughter, Lorraine, was born the year after the wedding in seventeen sixty three. They had a son, Joseph, who was born in seventeen sixty five, and then another daughter, Lucy Caroline, who was born in seventeen sixty eight. Daughter number three was Mary Anne and was born in seventeen seventy two. Their fourth daughter, Pamela, was born in seventeen seventy nine. Uh. And we're jumping ahead in time a bit, but four years after Pamela was born, So in seventeen eighty three, Mary actually died of consumption, and then their eldest daughter, Lorraine, also died of consumption just a few months later. But that is, as we said, we're jumping forward, but we'll circle back to kind of that part of his life. While living in Salisbury, connectic It, Ethan became friends with Thomas Young m D. So Young was educated and was really happy to discuss politics and philosophy with Ethan, and the two of them had a lot of talks about the writing of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, and it was locks work really that exposed Ethan Ellen to the concepts of the three unalienable rights of life, liberty, and property that we're at the center of revolutionary Republican ideology. So locks writing and Hobbs's writing were really inspiring to many of the American revolutionaries. The two of them also talked about medicine in the course of their friendship. One of the things they discussed touches on our Edward Jenner episode it was smallpox vaccination. The idea of introducing infective material into a healthy body is a way to ward off or cure disease, as we talked about in that episode, was basically viewed as heresy at the time. Uh not everywhere, but particularly in their community. It was really frowned upon as some suspicious business to try to cure thing with a thing. But allan believing the logic of in grafting, which is what this was called. This introduction to be sound, insisted that doctor Young publicly administer a controlled dose of the smallpox virus to him through vary elation so that they could prove once and for all that this process worked. And Dr Young was willing, and the procedure was performed on the steps of the Salisbury Meeting House on a Sunday in seventeen sixty four. The two men were both really known as free thinkers, which just didn't sit well at all with the many members of the community. Additionally, the procedure that the two of them had publicly displayed was not just considered to be the devil's work, it was illegal because it had not been approved by the town selectman. And there was some pretty significant fallout for the two of them from this little demonstration of science and medicine. Young, who up to that point had really had a very successful medical practice. Uh and you know, was a well respected doctor. Found that after they did this little variolation display, his patient load pretty quickly dwindled. Um. He eventually had to move his practice to another town. Although you may recognize his name because he did make history uh later on, not as a doctor, but as a revolutionary. He went on to become one of the pivotal participants in the Boston Tea Party, and he was significant in that and that he was one of the few men who refused to wear a disguise during that protest. Ethan's reputation really suffered while he successfully talked his way out of this blasphemy charged that he faced. He had a really cantanker his personality that had already alienated a lot of people in the community, and the stunt with young in the very elation did not help. Yeah. He uh, you know he actually there's I read one account that suggested that he was actually charged with a lesser thing. He was charged with blasphemy because when they came to get him on the steps, he kind of cursed out the town leaders and they arrested him for that rather than for performing this medical procedure without permission, but I was not able to confirm that um and as though just to cement his identity as sort of town troublemaker. After this whole varilation incident happened. The following year, Ethan was selling his part of the iron Works to a man named George Caldwell, and the terms of sale became a little bit contentious, and this disagreement escalated at the point where there was a skirmish in public in which Ethan Allen stripped naked and physically attacked Caldwell, and he ended up find for this behavior. I'm not sure why he stripped naked, but that is part of the story. It seems like if you're gonna fight a guy, you might want to have the protection of clothing, you would think. The only thing I can think of is if he just wanted to prove like he had nothing. There was no you know, sort of weaponry. He just wanted a bare knuckle fair fight. It's still a little bit odd. But before we get to sort of where he goes after this, after he's really kind of become this town troublemaker, do you want to have a word from a sponsor sure to return to Ethan Allen. As the seventeen seventies began, Ethan found himself with no ill income, and he was grieving the loss of his recently deceased sister, Lydia and caring for his ailing mother, who had suffered a stroke right after Lydia's death. Yeah, and keep in mind he had also made himself possibly the most unpopular man in town, and so in search of new opportunities, he decided to strike out for the Green Mountains of the New Hampshire Grants. This is the territory that is present day Vermont. Many families were moving to the grants in an effort to secure land for their families and thus sort of have a um a secure future for them. But there was a little bit of a problem in that this land was tied up in a debate over who actually had rights to it. The Governor of New Hampshire, Benning Wentworth, had been selling land parcels for a low price to speculators, although King George had ruled in seventeen sixty four that New York had the rights to the land. As the fighting went on, there were threats the landowners were going to have to pay the Yorkers for the rights to the land that they already thought they owned, and tensions over this were incredibly high. Yeah, we've done other episodes on sort of uh land grabs and people trying to place claims on land and how contentious it can be, and this was really really like a hot bed of argument. And so when Ethan Allen arrived on the scene, he was pretty passionate and open about his disdain for the Yorkers and his ideology that the prospectors who had gone to the grants really deserved the opportunity to ensure their family security through land ownership. Uh. He was a natural leader. I cannot say those two words together without thinking about Han Solo because princessly it calls him that, having nothing to do with Ethan Allen. But so Ethan Allen was a natural leader, and he really excelled at convincing people to see his point of view as the correct one. So he was really gaining ground with people that have been on the fence. So we're saying, like, no, these New Hampshire grants need to be given to people that are striking out and starting their families and trying to secure a family legacy, and so not long after he had arrived he was actually chosen as the agent for the settlers that were holding these Wentworth titles, and this leadership role Allen often found himself and just really all kinds of conflicts. Probably the most famous involved loyalists Samuel Adams. When Adams turned up ready for a fight, telling the title holders that they would have to purchase official New York Land needs from him, Ethan Allen disarmed him and hauled him to the Catamount Tavern. Allan and his fellow settlers held a trial for Adams, found him guilty, tied him to a chair, and set him on the taverns signpost for several hours. Mr Adams was apparently not much trouble to the settlers after that. Ethan Allen also there's a story that he took to Albany sheriffs into custody at one point when they had come to try to assertain New York's ownership of this land. And he held these two sheriffs in separate cells, away from one another. They couldn't see you or interact with each other at all. And then during the night Ethan Allen went outside and he hung an effigy outside the jail, but at a distance so it wasn't close up where you could clearly see it. And in the morning he allegedly told each of these men that the other one had been hanged in the night, and he convinced both of them, using this little ruse, that it was really far too dangerous to seek out payment to New York among the went Worth grant holders. And then once they were good and convinced that this was a scary place and they should not try to pursue any legal or fiscal action here, he let them go at different times so they did not see one another, and apparently there was some time before either of the men realized that they had been completely duped and that no one had been killed. So to to cut over to another frequently requested podcast subject. In the summer of seventeen seventy one, Ethan Allen was instrumental in the organization of the Green Mountain Boys at the Catamount Tavern. This was a militia that was focused on keeping Yorkers out of New Hampshire. Ethan was elected colonel commandant of the group and uh also during seventeen seventy one, there were two conventions that Allen was instrumental in arranging, and he set up public safety committees in one of them in almost a dozen grant townships. And he was also a major player in one of the conventions in drafting a decree that outlawed New York Land titles on the New Hampshire Grants. Alan also oversaw the production of political pamphlets explaining the settlers edition and currying favor by making the case the settlers were bullied and pushed around and their dealings with the Yorkers. Yeah, he really laid it on thick like it was. He you know, invoked images of like crying widows and you know, children that were frightened for their future, and he painted a picture of of real um. It was sort of the colonial version of those ads you see on television late at night that tell you about damaged animals or starving children. Like. It was that great of sort of almost propagandist writing. And the Green Mountain Boys, for their part, really made sure that Yorkers knew they were not welcome in the New Hampshire Grants. Their resistance was so effective and they were such a strong force that New York actually begged British forces in Canada to help them enforce the law and assert their ownership over this land. And the response that they got was not at all what they wanted. It kind of went along the lines of like, Hey, if your forces can be run off by this ragtag group of quote militiamen, then maybe you shouldn't be in power because you clearly can't handle it. So it did not go as New York had hoped. And before we get to sort of a transition that happens where the Green Mountain Boys go from being militia protecting their land to fighting for the colonies, do you want to have a quick word from a sponsor. So getting back to Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys. Uh. While all of this discord that was going on around land ownership that was sort of at this constant bubbling brew for several years, the American Revolution was also building. And as this was all happening, the Grant settlers and their Green Mountain Boys had come to believe, for the most part, not everyone was in agreement, but most of them that if they really wanted to protect this property that they were laying claim to, they were going to have to become an independent province and sort of outside anyone's uh governance except their own. Ethan Allen and many of the other settlers thought that if they could just prove themselves in battle against the British, surely their claimed the statehood would be seen favorably by the Continental Congress. And we're telegraphing because almost anytime we say surely this will happen, it almost always does it. Uh So, on May tenth, the Green Mountain Boys were instrumental in the capture of the British fort at Ticonderoga, New York. Although the fort was not especially well fortified and was also in a bit of disrepair, it was important because it sat on the southern edge of Lake Champlain, which was strategically pretty beneficial for geographical reference. The lake straddles the state line between New York on the west and Vermont on the east, and it pokes up into Quebec on the north end. This is a really major waterway, and it was used for travel between the St. Lawrence River Valley and the Hudson River Valley. The British had held this position since seventeen sixty three, and uh the Green Mountain Boys, led by Ethan Allen mobilized to hit the fort as a target after a request from Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull. But Alan and Trumbull were not the only ones who recognized that the Ticonderoga Fort was important. Benedict Donald was also making a move to attack Ticonderoga, and he had a military commission from the Revolutionary Councils of Massachusetts and Connecticut. So Benedict Donald and his forces showed up kind of alongside Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys, and then they were going to proceed upon the fort. At that point, Ethan Allen's crew was really adamant that they were not going to take orders from anyone other than him. As a consequence, Alan took command of all the forces, and you can imagine how that really delighted Benedict Arnold, who, like Allen, had all kinds of confidence of his own. The two men are said to have bickered over who was in charge without were settling things definitively, but their mission did continue in spite of their confusion over the leadership. Yeah, I mean, Benedict Donald was showing up with like an organized force, and Ethan Allen had his militia and then he just wanted to take over everything I can see where there would be some fights. However, the group made their move on the morning of the tenth, but they really met with like no resistance. There had only been about fifty men defending the four un Britain's behalf uh, and they were super easily taken. They weren't expecting anybody. They just they were actually um engravings that you will see of Ethan Allen just kind of standing outside the room and being like come out, we have you uh, and sort of just demanding the the surrender, which he got. Building on a success at Ticonderoga, the Green Mountain Boys and the troops that had traveled with Arnold moved north to take Crown Point a day later on May eleven. Similar to the first fort, Crown Point offered no resistance in the colonial army now now held two vital forts. Holding these positions on behalf of the colonies served to prevent a British attack from the north. Yeah. And it's one of those things that when you read about these uh, and sometimes in Ethan Allen biographies that kind of like quick ones that will be like he you know, masterfully handled these two pivotal fort takeovers, and it's like, well, he was leading forces, but it wasn't like these were like really big battles that required a lot of thinking on your feet. I mean, they kind of just went in and knocked on the door and said, we have you. This is ours now. Thanks guys. Yeah, there are some modern historians who are like, hey, wait, let's back up a little bit. This is not like a big skirmish. It was just sort of in some ways a lucky turn. However, despite this great success having taken these two forts, in July of seventy, Ethan was actually voted out of his leadership role with the Green Mountain Boys and replaced with a man named Seth Warner, who had really emerged as a leader during the taking of the Crown Point Fort. So it probably sounds a little weird for a military unit to be electing its owned officers, and it was so. At this point. The Green Mountain Boys were acting under the auspices of the State of New York, but they were authorized by the Continental Congress. And additionally, they weren't really into the whole structure of military power as it existed beyond them. As is probably clear from their refusal to take orders for Benedict Arnold. Yeah, so remember if it sounds weird that they were uh serving under the auspices of the State of New York that legally, at this point on paper, New York was recognized as the owner of the New Hampshire grants, even though that was a disputed area. And they were kind of throwing in their lot with this revolutionary war effort in the hope when all the dust had settled they could say, hey, we really helped you. Can we have our state now? And of course, having been ousted from his position, Ethan Allen was a little bit chagrined, but he did still want to contribute to the war effort, so he volunteered to move into Canada as the next step. But before we get there, we're gonna break uh. And this will be the end of the first part, because we kind of want to end on a triumphant note. Even though he has lost his leadership position, he has still had two you know, great fork takeovers, even if they were pretty easy. So I also have some listener mail, please read it well, and I have a couple and this one is good since we're ending as we kind of shift into Canada, which is from Canada. Uh. It is about our biggest Land podcast and it is from our listener, Sophie. And she says, your begins Land podcast had all of my favorite things, the yukon, the mounteas and oatmeal. I have a constable with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and I was listening to your show during a slow night shift when the episode came on. I haven't closed the book The Cremation of Sam McGhee, which, as the sticker on the front indicates, is concern it or to children's book. I've always found this funny is the book is about cremating an American prospector after he freezes to death. Despite the grim talk topic, the poetry and illustrations are stunning. I agree the color work on this is really really beautiful. So I recommend anybody who has the opportunity to see this book to do so. Uh And she said I had this book as a child and I can still recite it from memory. Further, she also sent us um to shoulder flashes from old uniform shirts, which is so cool. She said. Although it's commonly believed that the RCMP slogan is we always get our man on the crest. It is mental le noir, which translates as maintained the right. Uh. So, thank you so much, Sovie. This is such an awesome little parcel to receive. This book is seriously beautiful and I super appreciate it. Uh. And I love to look at art all the time. So hooray, thank you Sophie. And it's cool to have your patches. I feel so honored. Uh. If you would like to write to us, you can also do so. You do not have to send us things, but if you want to that is cool. You can write to us via email at History podcast at house to Works dot com. You can connect on Facebook dot com slash missed in history. You can visit us at Twitter at mist in history, at miss in history dot tumbler dot com, on pinterest dot com slash missed in history. And if you would like to wear your love of history on your sleeve, so to speak, or really on your chest, you can go to miss in history dot spreadshirt dot com and purchase T shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies. There are also accessories like bags and mugs that you can get there. Feel free to do all that if you would like to learn a little bit more about what we talked about today. It's really a very big topic. You can go to our parents site House to Works, type in the words Revolutionary War in the search bar, and you will find an entire section of articles on the Revolutionary War and how it all played out in different aspects of it. Uh. You can go to our site which is missed in history dot com to get show notes and listen to any of our shows, as well as occasional additional content like blogs. And you can also visit our parents Righthouse to Work dot com which you mentioned to research almost anything your mind could conjure for more on this and thousands of other topics. Because it how stuff works dot com m

Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry Tracy Wilson, and this is actually going to be a two parter, and it is a listener request, and it is a subject that has been requested by several people throughout the years. And then recently, when I was at Dragon Con, I met a listener of ours named Terry and he asked for it too, and he was really really excited about it. Uh, and it got me thinking about it some more again. Even though it's been on the list, you know, sometimes you get reminders. And then I was thinking about whether or not it was a good topic. And in addition to listener interest, I did some very non scientific polling and I mentioned the name of this person around the office and with my friends and family, and boy was I shocked because none of them really knew much about the person that we're talking about today. Even his name is a household name that everyone knows and recognizes. Uh. If you have spent any time in Vermont, you probably know a good bit about Ethan Allen because he's very central to Vermont's story. But sadly too many his name is only associated with the Huge Furniture Company, which is no disparity to the um. Not to disparage the Huge Furniture Company, but that's sort of eclipsed any actual historical record for a lot of people, and some people even think he was a carpenter as a consequence, he was not like the furniture guy, and I'm like, not really the furniture name appropriation. Yeah, but he was a huge personality. He was a founder of Vermont, and he was a very important figure in the Revolutionary War. His story also includes some fascinating and sort of wacky side notes and some missteps, which may account for sort of why he is not a more prominent figure in American historical lore. So we are going to cover Ethan Allen in his really very fascinating life. Ethan was born on January twenty one, thirty eight in Litchfield, Connecticut. He was the oldest of eight children born to Joseph and Mary Allen, and shortly after Ethan was born, their family moved to Cardwall, Connecticut. So Ethan was the only one of the Allen children's who have been born in Lichfield. His five brothers were Hem and heber Levi, Zimri and Ira, and his two sisters were Lydia and Lucy. All of the children lived to adulthood, which, as we often comment on with surprise, is surprising. Yeah, but apparently that that Alan blood was healthy. Ethan was very into philosophy and learning as a kid, and he was eventually sent to study under Reverend Jonathan Lee and Salisbury, Connecticut to prepare for studies at Yale. He was really, by his father's plan, on track to become an educated man. However, um the world kind of put a spanner in the works. His father died shortly after this plan began, and that meant that Ethan had to care for the family farm at the age of seventeen, and his plans for higher education were pretty much cut short at that point. In seventeen fifty seven, just two years after Ethan became the head of the household, he felt the pull of duty and enlisted to fight in the French and Indian War. He wasn't called to combat, though, and he returned home unscathed. Ethan married Mary Brownson in seventeen sixty two, and he was just twenty four, and Mary was actually six years older than him, and he had met Mary because he hauled grain for her father. Uh. And this match uh does not sound like it was especially happy. So whereas Ethan was fascinated by learning, uh, he was also a bit impulsive, you know, kind of as you said, a big figure, a big personality, and he liked to drink and party a little bit. Mary is usually characterized as being very prim and quite reserved and even stern. Uh So in terms of their personalities. Of times, those kinds of things will balance out, but it seems like it really made for some conflict there. Uh. But the couple settled in Salisbury, where Ethan had partial ownership and an iron works. Despite their differences, the two had five children together over the course of their twenty year marriage. Their daughter, Lorraine, was born the year after the wedding in seventeen sixty three. They had a son, Joseph, who was born in seventeen sixty five, and then another daughter, Lucy Caroline, who was born in seventeen sixty eight. Daughter number three was Mary Anne and was born in seventeen seventy two. Their fourth daughter, Pamela, was born in seventeen seventy nine. Uh. And we're jumping ahead in time a bit, but four years after Pamela was born, So in seventeen eighty three, Mary actually died of consumption, and then their eldest daughter, Lorraine, also died of consumption just a few months later. But that is, as we said, we're jumping forward, but we'll circle back to kind of that part of his life. While living in Salisbury, connectic It, Ethan became friends with Thomas Young m D. So Young was educated and was really happy to discuss politics and philosophy with Ethan, and the two of them had a lot of talks about the writing of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, and it was locks work really that exposed Ethan Ellen to the concepts of the three unalienable rights of life, liberty, and property that we're at the center of revolutionary Republican ideology. So locks writing and Hobbs's writing were really inspiring to many of the American revolutionaries. The two of them also talked about medicine in the course of their friendship. One of the things they discussed touches on our Edward Jenner episode it was smallpox vaccination. The idea of introducing infective material into a healthy body is a way to ward off or cure disease, as we talked about in that episode, was basically viewed as heresy at the time. Uh not everywhere, but particularly in their community. It was really frowned upon as some suspicious business to try to cure thing with a thing. But allan believing the logic of in grafting, which is what this was called. This introduction to be sound, insisted that doctor Young publicly administer a controlled dose of the smallpox virus to him through vary elation so that they could prove once and for all that this process worked. And Dr Young was willing, and the procedure was performed on the steps of the Salisbury Meeting House on a Sunday in seventeen sixty four. The two men were both really known as free thinkers, which just didn't sit well at all with the many members of the community. Additionally, the procedure that the two of them had publicly displayed was not just considered to be the devil's work, it was illegal because it had not been approved by the town selectman. And there was some pretty significant fallout for the two of them from this little demonstration of science and medicine. Young, who up to that point had really had a very successful medical practice. Uh and you know, was a well respected doctor. Found that after they did this little variolation display, his patient load pretty quickly dwindled. Um. He eventually had to move his practice to another town. Although you may recognize his name because he did make history uh later on, not as a doctor, but as a revolutionary. He went on to become one of the pivotal participants in the Boston Tea Party, and he was significant in that and that he was one of the few men who refused to wear a disguise during that protest. Ethan's reputation really suffered while he successfully talked his way out of this blasphemy charged that he faced. He had a really cantanker his personality that had already alienated a lot of people in the community, and the stunt with young in the very elation did not help. Yeah. He uh, you know he actually there's I read one account that suggested that he was actually charged with a lesser thing. He was charged with blasphemy because when they came to get him on the steps, he kind of cursed out the town leaders and they arrested him for that rather than for performing this medical procedure without permission, but I was not able to confirm that um and as though just to cement his identity as sort of town troublemaker. After this whole varilation incident happened. The following year, Ethan was selling his part of the iron Works to a man named George Caldwell, and the terms of sale became a little bit contentious, and this disagreement escalated at the point where there was a skirmish in public in which Ethan Allen stripped naked and physically attacked Caldwell, and he ended up find for this behavior. I'm not sure why he stripped naked, but that is part of the story. It seems like if you're gonna fight a guy, you might want to have the protection of clothing, you would think. The only thing I can think of is if he just wanted to prove like he had nothing. There was no you know, sort of weaponry. He just wanted a bare knuckle fair fight. It's still a little bit odd. But before we get to sort of where he goes after this, after he's really kind of become this town troublemaker, do you want to have a word from a sponsor sure to return to Ethan Allen. As the seventeen seventies began, Ethan found himself with no ill income, and he was grieving the loss of his recently deceased sister, Lydia and caring for his ailing mother, who had suffered a stroke right after Lydia's death. Yeah, and keep in mind he had also made himself possibly the most unpopular man in town, and so in search of new opportunities, he decided to strike out for the Green Mountains of the New Hampshire Grants. This is the territory that is present day Vermont. Many families were moving to the grants in an effort to secure land for their families and thus sort of have a um a secure future for them. But there was a little bit of a problem in that this land was tied up in a debate over who actually had rights to it. The Governor of New Hampshire, Benning Wentworth, had been selling land parcels for a low price to speculators, although King George had ruled in seventeen sixty four that New York had the rights to the land. As the fighting went on, there were threats the landowners were going to have to pay the Yorkers for the rights to the land that they already thought they owned, and tensions over this were incredibly high. Yeah, we've done other episodes on sort of uh land grabs and people trying to place claims on land and how contentious it can be, and this was really really like a hot bed of argument. And so when Ethan Allen arrived on the scene, he was pretty passionate and open about his disdain for the Yorkers and his ideology that the prospectors who had gone to the grants really deserved the opportunity to ensure their family security through land ownership. Uh. He was a natural leader. I cannot say those two words together without thinking about Han Solo because princessly it calls him that, having nothing to do with Ethan Allen. But so Ethan Allen was a natural leader, and he really excelled at convincing people to see his point of view as the correct one. So he was really gaining ground with people that have been on the fence. So we're saying, like, no, these New Hampshire grants need to be given to people that are striking out and starting their families and trying to secure a family legacy, and so not long after he had arrived he was actually chosen as the agent for the settlers that were holding these Wentworth titles, and this leadership role Allen often found himself and just really all kinds of conflicts. Probably the most famous involved loyalists Samuel Adams. When Adams turned up ready for a fight, telling the title holders that they would have to purchase official New York Land needs from him, Ethan Allen disarmed him and hauled him to the Catamount Tavern. Allan and his fellow settlers held a trial for Adams, found him guilty, tied him to a chair, and set him on the taverns signpost for several hours. Mr Adams was apparently not much trouble to the settlers after that. Ethan Allen also there's a story that he took to Albany sheriffs into custody at one point when they had come to try to assertain New York's ownership of this land. And he held these two sheriffs in separate cells, away from one another. They couldn't see you or interact with each other at all. And then during the night Ethan Allen went outside and he hung an effigy outside the jail, but at a distance so it wasn't close up where you could clearly see it. And in the morning he allegedly told each of these men that the other one had been hanged in the night, and he convinced both of them, using this little ruse, that it was really far too dangerous to seek out payment to New York among the went Worth grant holders. And then once they were good and convinced that this was a scary place and they should not try to pursue any legal or fiscal action here, he let them go at different times so they did not see one another, and apparently there was some time before either of the men realized that they had been completely duped and that no one had been killed. So to to cut over to another frequently requested podcast subject. In the summer of seventeen seventy one, Ethan Allen was instrumental in the organization of the Green Mountain Boys at the Catamount Tavern. This was a militia that was focused on keeping Yorkers out of New Hampshire. Ethan was elected colonel commandant of the group and uh also during seventeen seventy one, there were two conventions that Allen was instrumental in arranging, and he set up public safety committees in one of them in almost a dozen grant townships. And he was also a major player in one of the conventions in drafting a decree that outlawed New York Land titles on the New Hampshire Grants. Alan also oversaw the production of political pamphlets explaining the settlers edition and currying favor by making the case the settlers were bullied and pushed around and their dealings with the Yorkers. Yeah, he really laid it on thick like it was. He you know, invoked images of like crying widows and you know, children that were frightened for their future, and he painted a picture of of real um. It was sort of the colonial version of those ads you see on television late at night that tell you about damaged animals or starving children. Like. It was that great of sort of almost propagandist writing. And the Green Mountain Boys, for their part, really made sure that Yorkers knew they were not welcome in the New Hampshire Grants. Their resistance was so effective and they were such a strong force that New York actually begged British forces in Canada to help them enforce the law and assert their ownership over this land. And the response that they got was not at all what they wanted. It kind of went along the lines of like, Hey, if your forces can be run off by this ragtag group of quote militiamen, then maybe you shouldn't be in power because you clearly can't handle it. So it did not go as New York had hoped. And before we get to sort of a transition that happens where the Green Mountain Boys go from being militia protecting their land to fighting for the colonies, do you want to have a quick word from a sponsor. So getting back to Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys. Uh. While all of this discord that was going on around land ownership that was sort of at this constant bubbling brew for several years, the American Revolution was also building. And as this was all happening, the Grant settlers and their Green Mountain Boys had come to believe, for the most part, not everyone was in agreement, but most of them that if they really wanted to protect this property that they were laying claim to, they were going to have to become an independent province and sort of outside anyone's uh governance except their own. Ethan Allen and many of the other settlers thought that if they could just prove themselves in battle against the British, surely their claimed the statehood would be seen favorably by the Continental Congress. And we're telegraphing because almost anytime we say surely this will happen, it almost always does it. Uh So, on May tenth, the Green Mountain Boys were instrumental in the capture of the British fort at Ticonderoga, New York. Although the fort was not especially well fortified and was also in a bit of disrepair, it was important because it sat on the southern edge of Lake Champlain, which was strategically pretty beneficial for geographical reference. The lake straddles the state line between New York on the west and Vermont on the east, and it pokes up into Quebec on the north end. This is a really major waterway, and it was used for travel between the St. Lawrence River Valley and the Hudson River Valley. The British had held this position since seventeen sixty three, and uh the Green Mountain Boys, led by Ethan Allen mobilized to hit the fort as a target after a request from Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull. But Alan and Trumbull were not the only ones who recognized that the Ticonderoga Fort was important. Benedict Donald was also making a move to attack Ticonderoga, and he had a military commission from the Revolutionary Councils of Massachusetts and Connecticut. So Benedict Donald and his forces showed up kind of alongside Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys, and then they were going to proceed upon the fort. At that point, Ethan Allen's crew was really adamant that they were not going to take orders from anyone other than him. As a consequence, Alan took command of all the forces, and you can imagine how that really delighted Benedict Arnold, who, like Allen, had all kinds of confidence of his own. The two men are said to have bickered over who was in charge without were settling things definitively, but their mission did continue in spite of their confusion over the leadership. Yeah, I mean, Benedict Donald was showing up with like an organized force, and Ethan Allen had his militia and then he just wanted to take over everything I can see where there would be some fights. However, the group made their move on the morning of the tenth, but they really met with like no resistance. There had only been about fifty men defending the four un Britain's behalf uh, and they were super easily taken. They weren't expecting anybody. They just they were actually um engravings that you will see of Ethan Allen just kind of standing outside the room and being like come out, we have you uh, and sort of just demanding the the surrender, which he got. Building on a success at Ticonderoga, the Green Mountain Boys and the troops that had traveled with Arnold moved north to take Crown Point a day later on May eleven. Similar to the first fort, Crown Point offered no resistance in the colonial army now now held two vital forts. Holding these positions on behalf of the colonies served to prevent a British attack from the north. Yeah. And it's one of those things that when you read about these uh, and sometimes in Ethan Allen biographies that kind of like quick ones that will be like he you know, masterfully handled these two pivotal fort takeovers, and it's like, well, he was leading forces, but it wasn't like these were like really big battles that required a lot of thinking on your feet. I mean, they kind of just went in and knocked on the door and said, we have you. This is ours now. Thanks guys. Yeah, there are some modern historians who are like, hey, wait, let's back up a little bit. This is not like a big skirmish. It was just sort of in some ways a lucky turn. However, despite this great success having taken these two forts, in July of seventy, Ethan was actually voted out of his leadership role with the Green Mountain Boys and replaced with a man named Seth Warner, who had really emerged as a leader during the taking of the Crown Point Fort. So it probably sounds a little weird for a military unit to be electing its owned officers, and it was so. At this point. The Green Mountain Boys were acting under the auspices of the State of New York, but they were authorized by the Continental Congress. And additionally, they weren't really into the whole structure of military power as it existed beyond them. As is probably clear from their refusal to take orders for Benedict Arnold. Yeah, so remember if it sounds weird that they were uh serving under the auspices of the State of New York that legally, at this point on paper, New York was recognized as the owner of the New Hampshire grants, even though that was a disputed area. And they were kind of throwing in their lot with this revolutionary war effort in the hope when all the dust had settled they could say, hey, we really helped you. Can we have our state now? And of course, having been ousted from his position, Ethan Allen was a little bit chagrined, but he did still want to contribute to the war effort, so he volunteered to move into Canada as the next step. But before we get there, we're gonna break uh. And this will be the end of the first part, because we kind of want to end on a triumphant note. Even though he has lost his leadership position, he has still had two you know, great fork takeovers, even if they were pretty easy. So I also have some listener mail, please read it well, and I have a couple and this one is good since we're ending as we kind of shift into Canada, which is from Canada. Uh. It is about our biggest Land podcast and it is from our listener, Sophie. And she says, your begins Land podcast had all of my favorite things, the yukon, the mounteas and oatmeal. I have a constable with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and I was listening to your show during a slow night shift when the episode came on. I haven't closed the book The Cremation of Sam McGhee, which, as the sticker on the front indicates, is concern it or to children's book. I've always found this funny is the book is about cremating an American prospector after he freezes to death. Despite the grim talk topic, the poetry and illustrations are stunning. I agree the color work on this is really really beautiful. So I recommend anybody who has the opportunity to see this book to do so. Uh And she said I had this book as a child and I can still recite it from memory. Further, she also sent us um to shoulder flashes from old uniform shirts, which is so cool. She said. Although it's commonly believed that the RCMP slogan is we always get our man on the crest. It is mental le noir, which translates as maintained the right. Uh. So, thank you so much, Sovie. This is such an awesome little parcel to receive. This book is seriously beautiful and I super appreciate it. Uh. And I love to look at art all the time. So hooray, thank you Sophie. And it's cool to have your patches. I feel so honored. Uh. If you would like to write to us, you can also do so. You do not have to send us things, but if you want to that is cool. You can write to us via email at History podcast at house to Works dot com. You can connect on Facebook dot com slash missed in history. You can visit us at Twitter at mist in history, at miss in history dot tumbler dot com, on pinterest dot com slash missed in history. And if you would like to wear your love of history on your sleeve, so to speak, or really on your chest, you can go to miss in history dot spreadshirt dot com and purchase T shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies. There are also accessories like bags and mugs that you can get there. Feel free to do all that if you would like to learn a little bit more about what we talked about today. It's really a very big topic. You can go to our parents site House to Works, type in the words Revolutionary War in the search bar, and you will find an entire section of articles on the Revolutionary War and how it all played out in different aspects of it. Uh. You can go to our site which is missed in history dot com to get show notes and listen to any of our shows, as well as occasional additional content like blogs. And you can also visit our parents Righthouse to Work dot com which you mentioned to research almost anything your mind could conjure for more on this and thousands of other topics. Because it how stuff works dot com m