Ethan Allen and His Kin: Correspondendence, 1772-1819, Vol. 1

Abstract

Ethan Allen and His Kin: Correspondendence, 1772-1819, Vol. 1. Edited by John J. Duffy et al. (Hanover: University Press of New England, 1998. Pp. xlviii, 385. Illustrations. $50.00.) Ethan Allen and His Kin: Correspondendence, 1772-1819, Vol. 2. Edited by John J. Duffy et al. (Hanover: University Press of New England, 1998. Pp. xx, 432. Illustrations. $50.00.) Almost all readers will know the broad outline of the life of Ethan Allen: leader of Vermont's Green Mountain Boys, hero at the seizure of Fort Ticonderoga from the British, frontier religious skeptic. Fewer will be familiar with the lives of his younger brothers, Ira and Levi, let alone other miscellaneous kin. The editors of these works chose to publish the family's letters as a corpus because the correspondence illustrates the nature of frontier settlement during the early republic. The editors note that very few other large collections of letters or papers by prominent late eighteenthcentury back country figures are available (xxvii). The Allen family arrived in Vermont in the early 1770s, attracted by lands granted under the authority of New Hampshire's colonial governors. When successfully challenged by rival New York patentees, Ethan Allen organized fellow New Hampshire grantees into the Green Mountain Boys and used violence to force New York settlers and civil authorities to vacate the territory. In the meantime, the Allen family began acquiring land in northwestern Vermont along Lake Champlain, amounting to 100 square miles by 1774. When the Revolutionary War began, the Allens mobilized the Green Mountain Boys to seize Fort Ticonderoga from the British, thereby placing themselves in the good graces of New York authorities. This saved Ethan from a New York hangman's noose and secured Vermont a measure of de facto independence. From here the brothers' stories began to diverge. Ethan and Ira Allen became key leaders of the new state of Vermont, using all manner of guile to protect it from dismemberment by more powerful neighboring states and from invasion by the British in Canada. Ira served in the more prominent role, as state treasurer and surveyor; Ethan had to work from the sidelines, as his proclivity for religious skepticism made him politically unpopular. Meanwhile, thanks to their government connections and Vermont's growing population, the two prospered from land speculation. Levi Allen, on the other hand, showed no interest in patriot politics and was accused of loyalism in 1779 by the family patriarch, Ethan. He thereupon decided to become an outright Tory, serving as commissary to the British army in the South, and all the while failing to make much money. The return of peace in 1783 brought the brothers back into a loose partnership for a time. Using his British connections, Levi set up a store in St. John's, Quebec, trading lumber produced by Ira's sawmill to Canadian merchants in exchange for imported English goods. Unfortunately, Levi's perennial poor judgment and bad luck left the brothers deeply in debt to the Canadians. …