The Green Mountain Boys began as a tavern-based militia fighting New York over disputed land grants, then captured Fort Ticonderoga and helped create an independent republic that lasted 14 years. This episode explores how local economic survival drove one of the most unusual stories of the American Revolution.

We look at the conflicting New Hampshire Grants, King George III’s 1764 ruling for New York, and the intimidation campaign organized at the Catamount Tavern in Bennington. From the Westminster Massacre and the bloodless capture of Ticonderoga to Ethan Allen’s failed raid on Montreal, the founding of the Vermont Republic, and secret talks with British Quebec, this is the story of how a rogue militia ended with Vermont joining the Union as the 14th state.

• Why overlapping colonial charters left settlers holding deeds that New York declared worthless
• How the Green Mountain Boys used the Birch Seal and burned cabins to drive out New York claimants
• The irony of New York being ordered to fund the Green Mountain Rangers
• The Vermont Republic’s constitution, the first in North America to abolish adult slavery
• The Haldimand Affair and whether Vermont’s leaders were traitors or pragmatists