Shaftsbury is a town located in Bennington County, of the Manchester-Bennington region of Vermont. The town was chartered on August 20, 1761 and was named for Anthony Ashley-Cooper, the Fourth Earl of Shaftesbury.

In June 1843, escaped slaves hid at a Shaftsbury farm, in the first recorded instance in Vermont of the Underground Railroad.

Some notable people from the area include: Irving Adler, author, mathematician, scientist, & educator; Robert Frost, poet; Jonas Galusha, governor of Vermont; and Jacob M. Howard, senator from Michigan.