Ethan Allen

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Statue of Ethan Allen at the Vermont State House

Ethan Allen (born January 10, 1737 July / January 21,  1738 greg. In Litchfield , Colony of Connecticut , † February 13, 1789 in Burlington , Vermont ) was an American freedom fighter. He fought against the branches of the province of New York in Vermont and later also for the independence of Vermont during the American Revolutionary War .

Childhood, youth and family

The first of eight children Allen was born in Litchfield, from where his parents Joseph and Mary Baker Allen emigrated to Cornwall , Vermont soon after he was born . One of his brothers, Ira Allen , later also became an important figure in the colonial history of the state. After the death of his father, he took over the family farm and married Mary Brownson (1732–1783), six years his senior, with whom he had five children. After her death, he married the widow Frances Montresor Brush Buchanan on February 16, 1784, with whom he had three more children.

Military background

Allen served in the French and Indian War and was involved in the fighting over the area of ​​the so-called New Hampshire Grants between Vermont settlers and New York immigrants who refused to recognize the land claims and rights of use of the original owners. He became the military leader of the rebels known as the Green Mountain Boys .

Allen calls for the handover of Ticonderoga (Heppenheimer and Maurer, 1875)

At the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, Allen was colonel in a Vermonter division in the Continental Army . In the battle against the British in 1775 he was involved in the successful capture of Fort Ticonderoga in the third Battle of Ticonderoga . After joining the army of American General Schuyler , he served well in General Montgomery's campaign in Canada. In the unsuccessful attempt to take Montréal , he fell into the hands of the British, who sent him as a prisoner to England and only replaced Colonel Campbell in 1778. When the old colonial unrest broke out in Vermont again, Allen was appointed general of the state militia .

Political career

Allen went before Congress, where he negotiated with the Governor of Canada in 1780 and 1783 that Vermont was viewed as an independent state. He was charged with treason for these negotiations, but since his negotiations appeared to have resulted in Vermont independence, he was never formally charged. He was then a member of the legislature of this state for a long time. He died in February 1789, two years before Vermont was recognized as a separate state.

Publications

Allen published various writings:

  • Narrative of Colonel Ethan Allen's Captivity (1779)
  • Vindication of the Opposition of Vermont to the Government of New York (1779)
  • Reason the Only Oracle of Man, or A Compendious System of Natural Religion (1784) (together with Thomas Young)

Commemoration

The United States Navy named two ships in honor of Ethan Allen (a Bark in the American Civil War and a strategic submarine ), as well as Fort Ethan Allen, an outpost of cavalry in Colchester and Essex . A tour boat in Lake Champlain, the Spirit of Ethan Allen III, is also named after Allen, as is the Ethan Allen Express , an Amtrak train that runs between New York City and Rutland .

There is a statue in the Statuary Hall of the Capitol that commemorates Allen and represents Vermont.

literature

  • Michael A. Bellesiles: Revolutionary Outlaws: Ethan Allen and the Struggle for Independence on the Early American Frontier. University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1993, ISBN 0813916038 .
  • Edwin P. Hoyt: The Damndest Yankee: Ethan Allen and his Clan. EP Dutton, 1976, ISBN 0828902593 .
  • Mark M. Boatner: Encyclopedia of the American Revolution , Stackpole Books, August 1994, ISBN 0811705781 .
  • Charles Albert Jellison: Ethan Allen: Frontier Rebel , Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, NY, 1969, ISBN 0-8156-2141-8 .

Web links

Commons : Ethan Allen  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
Wikiquote: Ethan Allen  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Loraine (1763–1783), Joseph (1765–1777), Lucy Caroline (1768–1842), Mary Ann (1772–1790), Permelia (1779–1809)
  2. ^ Henry Walter De Puy: Ethan Allen and the Green-Mountain Heroes of '76 , Phinney, Blakeman & Mason, 1861, p. 129.
  3. ↑ Fanny (1784–1819), Hannibal (1786–1813), Ethan (1787–1855)
  4. ↑ Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing: Spirit of Ethan Allen III ( Memento of May 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (Eng.) Retrieved November 25, 2008.
  5. ^ The Architect of the Capitol: Ethan Allen . Accessed November 25, 2008.
personal data
SURNAME Allen, Ethan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American freedom fighter
DATE OF BIRTH January 21, 1738
PLACE OF BIRTH Litchfield , Colony of Connecticut
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 1789
Place of death Burlington , Vermont