Vermont Admitted as 14th State

March 4, 1791

After 14 years as an independent Green Mountain republic - no slavery, universal male suffrage, its own coinage - Vermont joined the United States. It was the first state admitted after the original thirteen. New York received cash to settle old land claims; Vermonters received Washington as their president. Vermont's 1777 constitution, which explicitly banned slavery, made it the first sovereign state in North America to do so.