Vermont’s Ebenezer Allen: Patriot, Commando and Emancipator

Ebenezer Allen was born during political instability and hardships in an unknown frontier. He matured during the tipping point of the American Revolution as an invincible leader who personified patriotism. Unlike his better-known cousins, Ebenezer was a skilled commando and combat veteran in Warner’s Regiment and Herrick’s Rangers. Following the capture of a British rear-guard force in 1777, Captain Allen took leave of his regiment and wrote an emancipation statement for a captured enslaved woman and her child. The document, which he filed with the Bennington town clerk, read, It is not right in the sight of God to keep slaves. Join historian and Vermont native Glenn Fay as he recounts how Colonel Allen became the forefather and elected legislator of two towns and one of the most prominent men in Vermont.