About Ethan Allen
With an estimated net worth of $5 million, Ethan Allen (January 10, 1737 – February 12, 1789) was a farmer, merchant, land speculator, thinker, author, lay theologian, American Revolutionary War patriot, and politician. Land speculator, farmer, businessman, and philosopher. All of these honors have been bestowed upon Ethan Allen, a hero of the American Revolution. You might sum up the guy who commanded the Green Mountain Boys and ultimately had a significant impact on the founding of the state of Vermont by adding the words patriot and politician.
New Hampshire Grants
The Revolutionary War initially caught Ethan Allen’s attention because of his property speculating activities in the so-called New Hampshire grants. Allen made significant investments in such grants, which provided investors with great real estate in exchange for money. They were in high demand, and it was said that Allen used intimidation to scare away competing investors, many of whom were from New York.
Allen was directly opposing the British throne because many of those investors were Tories who had the support of none other than King George III himself. The issue was that the land concessions that the state of New York was issuing came with tariffs and the King’s support, which gave them validity. Other grants made by Benning Wentworth, the then-gov. of New Hampshire, lacked this legality.
Allen and other Wentworth investors sued New York’s Lieutenant Governor in 1770 to resolve their disputes, but they were unsuccessful.
Green Mountain Boys Militia
Instead of accepting the decision, Allen and the other New Hampshire investors went back to their homes and started a neighborhood militia they called the Green Mountain Boys. The militia’s principal goal was to stop the Tory-backed authorities in New York from expanding their authority into the modern states of New Hampshire and Vermont. These actions included expelling rival settlers and land surveyors.
Revolutionary War and Ethan Allen
Allen and his Green Mountain Boys were called into service as soon as the Revolutionary War started. Allen led his group of 130 soldiers at Fort Ticonderoga in cooperation with other revolutionary troops. Benedict Arnold was meant to be in control, but Allen’s men refused to follow his orders. Without firing a shot, Allen and Arnold effectively compelled the British defenders to surrender the Fort after agreeing to share command and launching a surprise attack before dawn.
Allen was caught in September 1775 after leading an unsuccessful raid on Montreal. For the remainder of the war, he was detained by British officials before being freed in a prisoner exchange in 1778.
Ethan Allen Advocacy and Politics
Allen moved back to Vermont and started a career in politics and lobbying. His reputation as a war hero was cemented. While many have questioned Allen’s intentions for taking part in the Revolutionary War—which opponents regarded as a self-serving defense of his own commercial interests—those who backed him saw him as a tenacious advocate for Vermont statehood. The New Yorkers with whom he had fought over land, as well as similar land speculators from the state of New Hampshire, rejected that statehood.
Just six years after full peace with England was accepted, in 1789, Ethan Allen passed away. Two years later, in 1791, Vermont was admitted to the union as the fourteenth state.
And that’s a look at Ethan Allen, a hero of the American Revolution.
