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Connecticut Colony

Coordinates: 41°43′05″N 72°45′05″W / 41.71803°N 72.75146°W / 41.71803; -72.75146
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Connecticut Colony
1636
Map of the Connecticut, New Haven, and Saybrook colonies
Map of the Connecticut, New Haven, and Saybrook colonies
StatusColony of England (1636–1707)
Colony of Great Britain (1707–1776)
CapitalHartford (1636–1776)
New Haven (joint capital with Hartford, 1701–76)
Common languagesEnglish, Mohegan-Pequot, and Quiripi
Religion
Congregationalism (official)[1]
GovernmentSelf-governing colony
Governor 
• 1639-1640
John Haynes (first)
• 1769-1776
Jonathan Trumbull (last)
LegislatureGeneral Court
History 
• Established
March 3, 1636
January 14, 1639
• Royal Charter granted
October 9, 1662
• Part of the Dominion of New England
1686-89
• Independence
July 4, 1776
CurrencyConnecticut pound
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Saybrook Colony
New Haven Colony
Connecticut
Today part of United States
 ∟ Connecticut

The Connecticut Colony, originally known as the Connecticut River Colony, was an English colony in New England which later became the state of Connecticut. It was organized on March 3, 1636 as a settlement for a Puritan congregation of settlers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony led by Thomas Hooker. The English would secure their control of the region in the Pequot War. Over the course of the colony's history it would absorb the neighboring New Haven and Saybrook colonies. The colony's founding document, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut has been called the first written constitution of a democratic government.[2]

History

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Prior to European settlement, the land that would become Connecticut was home to the Wappinger Confederacy along the western coast and the Niantics on the eastern coast. Further inland were the Pequot, who pushed the Niantic to the coast and would become the most important tribe in relations with colonists. Also present were the Nipmunks and Mohicans, though these two tribes largely lived in the neighboring states of Massachusetts and New York respectively.[3] The first European to visit Connecticut was Dutch explorer Adriaen Block, who sailed up the Connecticut River with his yacht Onrust.[4][5] Accordingly, as the first Europeans to explore Connecticut, the Dutch claimed the land as part of New Netherland and negotiated a land purchase of 20 acres along the river from Wopigwooit, the Grand Sachem of the Pequot in 1633. The Dutch would establish a trading post named Kivett's Point and a redoubt named Fort Good Hope, the future sites of Saybrook and Hartford respectively.[6][7][8]

English settlement

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In 1631, a group of sachems from the Connecticut valley led by Wahquimacut visited Plymouth Colony and Boston, asking both colonies to send settlers to Connecticut to fight the Pequot. Massachusetts governor John Winthrop rejected the proposal but Edward Winslow, governor of Plymouth was more open, traveling to Connecticut in person in 1632.[9] Winslow, along with William Bradford would later travel to Boston to convince the leaders of Massachusetts Bay to join Plymouth in constructing a trading post on the Connecticut River before the Dutch could. Winthrop rejected the offer, calling Connecticut "not fit to meddle with" citing hostile Indians and the difficulty of moving large ships into the Connecticut River.[10][11][12]

Despite the Bay Colony's refusal to join the venture, Plymouth sent a bark led by William Holmes to establish a trading post on the Connecticut. Besides the English settlers, they took some of the original sachems of the area to prove the validity of their claim. As they passed Fort Good Hope they were threatened by the Dutch, a threat ignored by Holmes. Holmes proceeded a few miles up river and constructed a trading post on the modern site of Windsor.[13][14] Hearing of the English activities, New Netherland governor Wouter Van Twiller dispatched 70 men to dislodge the English. The Dutch would find the English well prepared to defend themselves and left, seeking to avoid bloodshed.[15] Meanwhile, John Oldham led a group of men from the Bay Colony to the river to see Connecticut for themselves. They returned with accounts of plentiful beaver, hemp, and graphite. A year later, Oldham would lead a group of settlers to found the town of Wethersfield.[13][16]

By 1635, Massachusetts' English population had grown immensely and it was clear there was not enough land for the settlers. Particularly eager to leave the crowded Bay colony were the residents of Netwown. The founder of Newtown, Thomas Dudley was frequently at odds with Winthrop, including anger at the choice of Boston as the colony's capital and refusal to support the construction of a fort in Boston.[17] Dudley sent one Thomas Hooker, Newtown's pastor to Boston to resolve the latter dispute, but the resentment of Winthrop remained.[18][19] After Dudley replaced Winthrop as governor in May 1634, the issue of Hooker's congregation's desire for removal to Connecticut was raised in the General Court. Opponents of the removal countered with a proposal that settlers instead settle Agawam and Merrimack. Both sites proved unsatisfactory, but removal was nonetheless delayed for two years.[20][21]

Despite the refusal of Thomas Hooker's request for removal, settlers continued to pour into the valley. In May of 1635 the Saybrook Colony was established at the mouth of the Connecticut River.[22] Considerable amounts of emigrants from Massachusetts also settled in the recently established town of Wethersfield.[23] Plymouth's settlement of Windsor also found itself swamped by settlers from Dorchester who took over the settlement. The issue was resolved when the Dorchester settlers agreed to pay the Plymouth settlers for the land appropriated.[24] Finally in 1636 the arrival of a new group of settlers allowed Hooker's congregation to sell their homes and set off on the journey to Connecticut on the May 31.[25]

Hooker's group of around a hundred settlers and as many cattle soon arrived at the Connecticut River and established the town of Newtown near the Dutch fort. This name would not last however, as it was soon renamed Hartford after Hertford, the hometown of settler Samuel Stone.[26] In May 1638 Thomas Hooker delivered a sermon on civil government. Inspired by this sermon the settlers sought to create a constitution for the colony. The resulting document, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, was likely mostly drafted by Roger Ludlow, the only trained lawyer in the colonies. The document was adopted in January 1639 and formally united the settlements of Hartford, Windsor, and Wetherfield together and has been called the first written democratic constitution.[2][27][28] Under the new constitution, John Haynes was elected governor with Ludlow as deputy governor. Owing to a restriction against governors seeking office in consecutive years, Haynes would alternate the office of governor with Edward Hopkins every year until 1655.[29] Shortly after the Fundamental Orders were established, the nearby New Haven colony organized its own government.[30]

Leaders

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John Winthrop the Younger of New London was the son of the founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and he played an important role in consolidating separate settlements into a single colony on the Connecticut River. He also served as Governor of Connecticut from 1659 to 1675, and he was instrumental in obtaining the colony's 1662 charter which incorporated New Haven into Connecticut. His son Fitz-John Winthrop also governed the colony for 10 years starting in 1698.

Major John Mason was the military leader of the early colony. He was the commander in the Pequot War, a magistrate, and the founder of Windsor, Saybrook, and Norwich. He was also Deputy Governor under Winthrop.

William Leete of Guilford served as president of New Haven Colony before its merger into Connecticut, and he also served as governor of Connecticut following Winthrop's death in 1675. He is the only man to serve as governor of both New Haven and Connecticut. Robert Treat of Milford served as governor of the colony, both before and after its inclusion in the Dominion of New England under Sir Edmund Andros. His father Richard Treat was one of the original patentees of the colony. Roger Wolcott was a weaver, statesman, and politician from Windsor, and he served as governor from 1751 to 1754. Oliver Wolcott was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and also of the Articles of Confederation, as a representative of Connecticut and the nineteenth governor. He was a major general for the Connecticut Militia in the Revolutionary War serving under George Washington.

Religion

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The original colonies along the Connecticut River and in New Haven were established by separatist Puritans who were connected with the Massachusetts and Plymouth colonies. They held Calvinist religious beliefs similar to the English Puritans, but they maintained that their congregations needed to be separated from the English state church. They had immigrated to New England during the Great Migration. In the middle of the 18th century, the government restricted voting rights with a property qualification and a church membership requirement.[31] Congregationalism was the established church in the colony by the time of the American War of Independence until it was disestablished in 1818.[32]

Economic and social history

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Historical population
YearPop.±%
16401,472—    
16504,139+181.2%
16607,980+92.8%
167012,603+57.9%
168017,246+36.8%
169021,645+25.5%
170025,970+20.0%
171039,450+51.9%
172058,830+49.1%
173075,530+28.4%
174089,580+18.6%
1750111,280+24.2%
1760142,470+28.0%
1770183,881+29.1%
1774197,842+7.6%
1780206,701+4.5%
Source: 1640–1760;[33] 1774[34] includes New Haven Colony (1638–1664) 1770–1780[35]

The economy began with subsistence farming in the 17th century and developed with greater diversity and an increased focus on production for distant markets, especially the British colonies in the Caribbean. The American Revolution cut off imports from Britain and stimulated a manufacturing sector that made heavy use of the entrepreneurship and mechanical skills of the people. In the second half of the 18th century, difficulties arose from the shortage of good farmland, periodic money problems, and downward price pressures in the export market. In agriculture, there was a shift from grain to animal products.[36] The colonial government attempted to promote various commodities as export items from time to time, such as hemp, potash, and lumber, in order to bolster its economy and improve its balance of trade with Great Britain.[37]

Connecticut's domestic architecture included a wide variety of house forms. They generally reflected the dominant English heritage and architectural tradition.[38]

See also

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References

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Notes

  1. ^ Barck, Oscar T.; Lefler, Hugh T. (1958). Colonial America. New York: Macmillan. p. 398.
  2. ^ a b "Early History". CT.gov.
  3. ^ Bingham p. 6-7
  4. ^ Bingham p. 2-5
  5. ^ "Adriaen Block". The Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut. General Society of Colonial Wars.
  6. ^ Bingham p.10-11
  7. ^ "History of Old Saybrook". Saybrook History. Old Saybrook Historical Society.
  8. ^ "House of Hope | A Tour of New Netherland".
  9. ^ Stiles p. 9
  10. ^ Bingham pp. 12-13
  11. ^ Winthrop p. 103
  12. ^ Bradford pp. 370-372
  13. ^ a b Bingham p. 14
  14. ^ Stiles pp. 11-12
  15. ^ Carpenter p. 32
  16. ^ Taylor pp. 3-4
  17. ^ Bingham p. 17
  18. ^ "Preface". Records of the Church of Christ at Cambridge in New England, 1632-1830. 1906. p. iii.
  19. ^ Bingham pp. 19-20
  20. ^ Walker p. 83
  21. ^ Bingham p. 20
  22. ^ Engstrom, Hugh R. Jr. (1973). "Sir Arthur Hesilrige and the Saybrook Colony". JSTOR. Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies.
  23. ^ Adams, Sherman W. (1904). The history of ancient Wethersfield, Connecticut. Grafton Press. p. 21.
  24. ^ Bingham pp. 24-25
  25. ^ Walker pp. 91-92
  26. ^ "History of Early Hartford". Society of the Descendants of the Founders of Hartford.
  27. ^ Besso, Michael (2012). "Thomas Hooker and His May 1638 Sermon". JSTOR. Early American Studies.
  28. ^ "The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut". Connecticut History. CTHUmanities. 2023.
  29. ^ "John Haynes". Museum of Connecticut History. 1999.
  30. ^ Calder, Isabel M. (1930). "John Cotton and the New Haven Colony". JSTOR. The New England Quarterly.
  31. ^ Barck, Oscar T.; Lefler, Hugh T. (1958). Colonial America. New York: Macmillan. pp. 258–259.
  32. ^ Weston Janis, Mark (2021). "Connecticut 1818: From Theocracy to Toleration Connecticut 1818: From Theocracy to Toleration". University of Connecticut School of Law.
  33. ^ Purvis, Thomas L. (1999). Balkin, Richard (ed.). Colonial America to 1763. New York: Facts on File. pp. 128–129. ISBN 978-0816025275.
  34. ^ Purvis, Thomas L. (1995). Balkin, Richard (ed.). Revolutionary America 1763 to 1800. New York: Facts on File. p. 147. ISBN 978-0816025282.
  35. ^ "Colonial and Pre-Federal Statistics" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. p. 1168.
  36. ^ Daniels (1980)
  37. ^ Nutting (2000)
  38. ^ Smith (2007)

Bibliography

Further reading

  • Andrews, Charles M. The Colonial Period of American History: The Settlements, volume 2 (1936) pp 67–194, by leading scholar
  • Atwater, Edward Elias (1881). History of the Colony of New Haven to Its Absorption into Connecticut. author. to 1664
  • Burpee, Charles W. The story of Connecticut (4 vol 1939); detailed narrative in vol 1-2
  • Clark, George Larkin. A History of Connecticut: Its People and Institutions (1914) 608 pp; based on solid scholarship online
  • Federal Writers' Project. Connecticut: A Guide to its Roads, Lore, and People (1940) famous WPA guide to history and to all the towns online
  • Fraser, Bruce. Land of Steady Habits: A Brief History of Connecticut (1988), 80 pp, from state historical society
  • Hollister, Gideon Hiram (1855). The History of Connecticut: From the First Settlement of the Colony to the Adoption of the Present Constitution. Durrie and Peck., vol. 1 to 1740s
  • Jones, Mary Jeanne Anderson. Congregational Commonwealth: Connecticut, 1636–1662 (1968)
  • Roth, David M. and Freeman Meyer. From Revolution to Constitution: Connecticut, 1763–1818 (Series in Connecticut history) (1975) 111pp
  • Sanford, Elias Benjamin (1887). A history of Connecticut. S.S. Scranton.; very old textbook; strongest on military history, and schools
  • Taylor, Robert Joseph. Colonial Connecticut: A History (1979); standard scholarly history
  • Trumbull, Benjamin (1818). Complete History of Connecticut, Civil and Ecclesiastical. very old history; to 1764
  • Van Dusen, Albert E. Connecticut A Fully Illustrated History of the State from the Seventeenth Century to the Present (1961) 470pp the standard survey to 1960, by a leading scholar
  • Van Dusen, Albert E. Puritans against the wilderness: Connecticut history to 1763 (Series in Connecticut history) 150pp (1975)
  • Zeichner, Oscar. Connecticut's Years of Controversy, 1750–1776 (1949)
Specialized studies
Historiography
  • Daniels, Bruce C. "Antiquarians and Professionals: The Historians of Colonial Connecticut", Connecticut History (1982), 23#1, pp 81–97.
  • Meyer, Freeman W. "The Evolution of the Interpretation of Economic Life in Colonial Connecticut", Connecticut History (1985) 26#1 pp 33–43.
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41°43′05″N 72°45′05″W / 41.71803°N 72.75146°W / 41.71803; -72.75146

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