Fourteenth State of the Union Admission to Statehood: 04 March 1791
Originally inhabited by two major Native American tribes (the Algonquian-speaking Abenaki and the Iroquois), much of the territory that is now Vermont was claimed by France in the early colonial period. France ceded the territory to the Kingdom of Great Britain after being defeated in 1763 in the Seven Years' War (also called the French and Indian War). For many years, the nearby colonies, especially New Hampshire and New York, disputed control of the area (then called the New Hampshire Grants). Settlers who held land titles granted by these colonies were opposed by the Green Mountain Boys militia, which eventually prevailed in creating an independent state, the Vermont Republic. Founded in 1776, during the Revolutionary War, it lasted for fourteen years. While independent, it abolished slavery. When it joined the Union, it was the first state to have abolished slavery. Vermont is one of seventeen U.S. states (along with Texas, Hawaii, the brief California Republic, and each of the original Thirteen Colonies) that each once had a sovereign government. In 1791, Vermont joined the United States as the fourteenth state and the first outside the original Thirteen Colonies.
State Flower: Red Clover
State Tree: Sugar Maple
State Bird: Hermit Thrush