Old Constitution House: Where Vermont Banned Slavery First
Near Woodstock, New Hampshire
On July eighth, seventeen seventy-seven, delegates gathered in a Windsor tavern owned by Elijah West and signed a document that made Vermont a republic unto itself.
The constitution they wrote that day was the first in the Americas to explicitly prohibit adult slavery. It also established universal manhood suffrage, without property requirements, and created a public school system. Vermont would remain an independent republic for fourteen years before joining the United States in seventeen ninety-one as the fourteenth state.
The tavern where that vote was taken still stands on Main Street. It is now a Vermont state historic site and houses exhibits on the constitution and the independent republic that preceded statehood.
