History of Vermont

The geologic history of Vermont begins more than 450 million years ago during the Cambrian and Devonian periods.

Human history of Native American settlement can be divided into the hunter-gatherer Archaic Period, from c. 7000–1000 BC, and the sedentary Woodland Period, from c. 1000 BC to AD 1600. Vermont was admitted to the United States as the fourteenth state in 1791 after a brief period of sovereignty following the American Revolutionary War. Vermont experienced rising abolitionist sentiment and subsequently fought on the Union side of the American Civil War.