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Chapter 5
Chapter 5Connecticut
First Settlement:
Huys de Goede Hoop/House of Good Hope, 1623
Capital:
Hartford and New Haven
Economy:
Agriculture,
shing, shipping, trade.
Native Tribes:
Lenape, Mohegan, Pequot
1775 Governor:
Jonathan Trumbull
History
1614: Dutch fur trader Adriaen Block explores the Connecticut River.1623:
e Dutch build a fort at Huys de Goede Hoop (House of Good Hope) nearpresent-day Hartford.1633: Settlers from the Plymouth Colony establish Windsor, a few miles north of the Dutch trading post.1634-1638: Pequot War. Fort Saybrook is e
ectively besieged throughout the winterof 1636-1637. In the spring, Pequot raids on other settlements increase. Windsor,Hartford, and Wethers
eld set up a collective government to
ght the Pequots.1635:
e Saybrook Colony is established by settlers from Massachusetts.1636: English settlers on the Delaware break with Massachusetts and establish theConnecticut colony. Its independence is not recognized by the Crown until 1688.1637:
e Mystic Massacre. English settlers set
re to a Pequot fort on the MysticRiver, killing anyone who attempts to escape. An estimated 400-700 Pequots die,mostly women and children.
e Pequots are broken and seek shelter among neigh-boring tribes.1638:
e New Haven Colony is founded by Puritans from England.1643: Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, New Haven, and Connecticut colonies formthe New England Confederation with the goal of uniting Puritan colonists againstnative attacks and against New England’s colonial rivals, such as New Netherland tothe south and Quebec to the north.
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Connecticut
1644:
e Saybrook Colony merges with the Hartford-based Connecticut Colony.1654:
e Dutch withdraw from Connecticut.1662: Connecticut receives a Royal Charter con
rming its right to self-govern-ment.1664: New Netherland is captured by England, and some of its eastern territories aresplit o
to create New Jersey, western Connecticut, and Delaware.1665:
e New Haven Colony merges with the Connecticut Colony.1675-6: King Philip’s War. More than half of New England’s 90 towns are attackedby the Wampanoag Confederacy.1686-1689:
e Dominion of New England includes Connecticut. Royal GovernorSir Edmund Andros maintains that his commission supersedes Connecticut’s 1662Charter. In late October, 1687, Andros arrives with troops and naval support anddemands the assembly turn the 1662 charter over to him. As the charter is placedon the table, those present blow all the candles out. When the light is restored, thecharter is missing. According to legend, it was hidden in the Charter Oak.1688:
e Connecticut colony receives a royal charter, formally separating it fromMassachusetts.1701:
e Collegiate School of Connecticut is chartered in Old Saybrook. New Haven is made co-capital of Connecticut.1715:
e Collegiate School of Connecticut moves to New Haven.1718:
e Collegiate School of Connecticut is renamed after benefactor Elihu Yale.1722: Jailbreak riot in Hartford.1734: Riot against ship seizure in HartfordCounty.1765: Stamp Act riots in Boston, Rhode Island,Connecticut, New York, and Maryland.1766: Anti-customs riots in New Haven.1766: Riot in New London against the Rog-erenes, a Quaker-in
uenced religious move-ment.1769: Anti-customs riots in New Haven andNew London.1769 – 1771: First Pennamite War between settlers from Connecticut and Pennsyl- vania in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania.
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Chapter 5
1775: Anti-Loyalist riot at East Haddam. On April 23, the Second Company, Gov-ernor’s Foot Guard, under Captain Benedict Arnold, break into the New Havenpowder house to arm themselves and begin a three-day march to Cambridge, Mas-sachusetts.
Geography
Connecticut is cut in two by the Connecticut River, and the Long Island Soundforms its southern border. Most settlements are along the coast or in the river valley, which has good alluvial soil.
e land on either side is mostly forested hills. North-ern Connecticut is on the fringe of the Taconic Mountains, part of the Appalachianmountain chain.
e highest point in Connecticut is Bear Mountain (2,379 feet) inthe northwest corner of the colony.
Society and Politics
Connecticut has long been used to governing itself, thanks to its charter.
e
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
, rati
ed in 1639, invests the people with the au-thority to govern.With many colonists from Massachusetts, Connecticut has always leaned to- ward Puritanism, but tolerates Anglicans, Baptists, and other “sober dissenters.”However, tensions are growing over the Loyalist tendencies of Connecticut Angli-cans, who are mainly concentrated in Fair
eld County.
Locations
Hartford
Hartford stands on the Connecticut River. It was founded as a mainly farmingcommunity, but has grown into a commercial and administrative center.
e lead-ing founder,
omas Hooker, was a Cambridge-educated Puritan who maintainedthat
“
e foundation of authority is laid,
rstly, in the free consent of the people.”
isphilosophy is a direct challenge to the concept of the Divine Right of Kings, whichunderpins the British monarchy.
e Connecticut Colony, based at Hartford, hadone of the world’s
rst written constitutions and went on to absorb the Saybrook andNew Haven Colonies, facts of which the people of Hertford are still proud.
e town square—marked with a monuments at each corner—contains the MeetingHouse, House of Correction, stocks, and a pillory. It is the center of the community,both for punishment and celebration. Hartford also boasts a public library, foundedin 1774 under the name of
e Librarian Company, and the residents are only toohappy to point out the Charter Oak and tell its story to visitors.
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