Spotlight on Records

While the Archives record series database informs the researcher about the records we hold, the "spotlight on records" presents a selection of information from different series to encourage research interest.

• Vermont and the Dred Scott Decision
  On March 6, 1857 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Dred Scott v. Sandford that people of African descent could never be citizens of the United States.  According to the Court the drafters of the U.S. Constitution believed African-Americans as “beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations…”
  
  The Dred Scott decision mobilized abolitionists and marked a significant step in the collapse of political dialogue that led to the Civil War.  In Vermont, whose 1777 Constitution not only prohibited slavery but also based citizenship solely on age and gender (not race or property qualifications), there were questions on Dred Scott’s impact.   In an 1857 letter to Vermont Secretary of State Charles Willard, J.J. Grindale of Baltimore asked whether, in Vermont, since “both white and coloured vote because they are men, the question of citizenship is not important…”  (Manuscript Vermont State Papers, Vol. 95 Page 181.)
  
  The Vermont Legislature indirectly responded to Grindale’s letter through Act 37 of 1858 that declared, in part, that: “Neither descent, near or remote, from an African, whether such African is or may have been a slave or not, nor color of skin or complexion, shall disqualify any person from being, or prevent any person from becoming, a citizen of this State, nor deprive such person of the rights and privileges thereof.”   
  (posted 2008-02)

• The Preamble to the Vermont Constitution, 1777
  (Record Series PRA-077)
  The July 1777 constitutional convention, which met at Windsor, created the State of Vermont through adoption of a state constitution.  Ira Allen was instructed to draft a preamble to the Constitution which he completed by November 1777.  A second Windsor convention adopted the preamble as part of the Constitution in December 1777.
  
  The preamble was similar to the 1776 Declaration of Independence of the United States in that it set out grievances that in the eyes of Vermonters violated the social contract (Vermont’s grievances addressed not only Great Britain, but also the State of New York, which claimed Vermont).  Therefore Vermont reverted to a state of nature, free to adopt a new governance charter. The opening of the preamble declared that ”…whenever those great ends of government are not obtained, the people have a right, by common consent, to change it, and take such measures as to them appear necessary to promote their safety and happiness.”
  
  The preamble was continued by the Vermont Constitution of 1786 but, following statehood in 1791, was dropped from the 1793 Vermont Constitution. 
  
  A typescript of the 1777 Constitution, with preamble, can be found at:
  http://vermont-archives.org/govhistory/constitut/con77.htm
  (posted 2007-11)

• Commission to Investigate State Institutions, 1904-1906. (Record Series PRA-077)
  
  The Commission was created by Act 163 of 1904 and was charged with investigating the "state hospital for the insane" and in the commission’s "discretion" the state prison, house of corrections, and industrial school. PRA-077 consists of the Commission’s hearing transcripts on the state prison.
  
  This series has it all: sex, drugs, possible malfeasance, and bureaucratic infighting. The transcripts include insights into daily life within the prison; for example, how many plugs of tobacco were provided prisoners since chewing but not smoking was allowed. They also include allegations that the prison warden put family members on the payroll without specific duties and misappropriated prison supplies for his personal use. There is discussion of the smuggling of morphine into the prison and on inappropriate sexual relations between prison officers, staff and prisoners. Many of the transcripts focus on such relationships with Mary Rogers who was awaiting execution for murdering her husband. The series is a rich resource for any one researching the state prison or the Mary Rogers case (Mrs. Rogers was the second, and last, woman executed by the State of Vermont). (posted 2007-08)

• The Governor's Task Force on Wood as a Source of Energy, 1975.
  
  The Task Force was created by Governor Thomas P. Salmon on May 24, 1974 in response to the energy crisis occasioned by the 1973 oil embargo launched by the Organization of Oil Producing Countries (OPEC). The Task Force records and report, issued August 14, 1975, can be found in the records of Governor Thomas Salmon (Box BBB, Folder 520 and Box DDD, Folder 534). The report looked at Vermont's renewable wood supply, the economic impact of increased reliance on wood-based energy, and the environmental impact of wood energy.
  
  An interesting point of comparison is offered by the June 21, 2007 study by the Biomass Energy Resource Center entitled: The Vermont Wood Fuel Supply Study; an Examination of the Availability and Reliability of Wood Fuel for Biomass Energy in Vermont. The study was conducted for the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks & Recreation and the Vermont Department of Buildings and General Services. It can be accessed, as of July 9, 2007, at the Biomass Energy Resource Center website at: http://www.biomasscenter.org (posted 2007-07-10)

• Vermont Commission to Investigate the Taxation of Public Utilities, 1931-1932 (Record Series PRA-007):
  
  The Commission was created by Joint Resolution No. 304 of 1931.  The series consists of public testimony, financial information from public utilities, and studies on utility taxation.  The Commission's report was issued in 1933.  Within the series are three maps showing different views of the distribution of electricity in Vermont. For more information on the Commission's records see the Archives' Record Series Database. (posted 2007-06)