The Black Snake Affair

In eighteen hundred and eight, a smuggling vessel called the Black Snake was lying in the Winooski River, loading potash bound for Canada. The United States and Britain were at war economically, and smuggling across the Vermont border was so common it had become almost routine. But this night turned deadly.

A federal revenue party caught up with the Black Snake and attempted to seize her. The smugglers fought back, and in the confrontation the crew of the Black Snake killed federal men. The smugglers were captured, tried for murder, and some of them were hanged. The case shocked Vermont and sent a clear message that the embargo laws of the Jefferson administration would be enforced, even on this remote stretch of river where the Canadian border felt close and the law felt far away.