Vermont

An independent republic for fourteen years, created out of a land dispute between two colonies that both claimed it. New Hampshire and New York had issued overlapping grants in the territory, and when the Crown ruled for New York in 1764 the settlers holding New Hampshire titles organised as the Green Mountain Boys under Ethan Allen to resist eviction. They seized Fort Ticonderoga in May 1775, and in 1777 declared an independent Vermont Republic, which minted its own coinage, ran its own post office and negotiated with the British. Its 1777 constitution was the first anywhere in America to prohibit adult slavery outright and to grant suffrage without property qualification. New York's refusal to drop its claim kept Vermont out of the union until 1791, when it was admitted as the fourteenth state after paying New York thirty thousand dollars. Sheep farming boomed and collapsed, and the state lost population for decades. Dairy, granite and later tourism replaced it. Vermont was the first state to allow civil unions, in 2000. It has no billboards, banned since 1968. It is the second least populous state and the most rural by share of residents. Montpelier is the capital and the least populous state capital in the country. Burlington on Lake Champlain is the largest city. The name comes from French words for green mountain. Maple syrup production leads the nation. The state has more covered bridges per area than any other. It is the only New England state without an Atlantic coastline.

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