You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast.

Hey mate, just passed a room there.

What's with the giant pile of letters?

Letters?

Ah, my billroom.

Billroom?

Yeah. Can't open them, can't throw them out, so they go on the pile.

You've got a giant pile of unopened bills, big enough for a room and you don't want to

open them because... Don't want to know. Right, well maybe if you open them you wouldn't have to sleep in the bath.

Yeah, or cook in the shower.

Studies show our relationship with money is formed from age seven.

So for help tackling your finances, search Barclays Make Money Work for you. Hello, and thank you for joining the American Revolution.

Today, episode 177, The Republic of Vermont. In March 1778, the Vermont legislature was elected and met for the first time.

This was significant because no one, not even the other 13 states, recognized Vermont as an independent state.

I mentioned almost in passing back in episode 131 that Vermont had declared its own independence in January of 1777.

The Continental Congress and just about everyone else outside of Vermont pretty much ignored this

declaration. The main reason for ignoring it was that it was divisive. The

Continental Congress was doing everything it could to keep the 13 states united.

It did not want to highlight a matter of local contention between the states.

To explain why, perhaps a little background would be helpful.

In the colonial era, the exact territorial borders of many colonies were ill-defined and sometimes contradictory.

New York thought its eastern border was the Connecticut River.

...