Vermont was NOT one of the original thirteen states in the Union. Vermont had already abolished slavery when it was an independent colony. I once listened to a public radio discussion of how Vermont became a state, on March 4, 1791. The Vermonters who went to investigate the possibility of statehood did not like what they learned, and almost half of the delegation voted NOT to join the Union, because of slavery. The dissenting delegates were said to have made dire predictions about the effects of slavery on the new United States of America: great inequalities would develop with an arrogant "aristocracy," a terrible war would eventually erupt between free states and slave states, and little children around the world would learn to curse the United States of America.

Maybe the founders of our country should have listened to these dissenting Vermonters.