Page "Constitution of Vermont" Paragraph 4

Prior to 1791 Vermont was an independent state, known as the Vermont Republic, governed under the Constitution of the Vermont Republic.

The Vermont Constitution was in 1777, and remains, among the most far reaching in guaranteeing personal freedoms and individual rights.

It is the first constitution in the New World to prohibit slavery, guarantee universal manhood suffrage regardless of property ownership, and universal free education, a mandate for public funding of primary and secondary education available to all citizens.