Connecticut Colony
Connecticut Colony | |||||||||||
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| 1636–1686 1689–1776 | |||||||||||
.svg) .svg) Government Self-governing colony | | ||||||||||
| Governor | |||||||||||
• 1639-1640 | John Haynes (first) | ||||||||||
• 1769-1776 | Jonathan Trumbull (last) | ||||||||||
| Legislature | General Court | ||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||
• Established | March 3, 1636 | ||||||||||
• Dominion of New England Independence | 1686 1689–1776 | ||||||||||
| Currency | Connecticut pound | ||||||||||
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| Today part of |  United States∟  Connecticut | ||||||||||
The Connecticut Colony or Colony of Connecticut, originally known as the Connecticut River Colony or simply the River Colony, was an English colony in
Pequots known as the Pequot War. Connecticut Colony played a significant role in the establishment of self-government in the New World with its refusal to surrender local authority to the Dominion of New England, an event known as the Charter Oak incident which occurred at Jeremy Adams
' inn and tavern.
Two other English settlements in Connecticut were merged into the Colony of Connecticut: Saybrook Colony in 1644 and New Haven Colony in 1662.
Leaders
 |
John Davenport and merchant Theophilus Eaton led the founders of the New Haven Colony
, which was absorbed into Connecticut Colony in the 1660s.
In the colony's early years, the governor could not serve consecutive terms, so the governorship rotated for 20 years between John Haynes and Edward Hopkins, both of whom were from Hartford. George Wyllys, Thomas Welles, and John Webster, also Hartford men, sat in the governor's chair for brief periods in the 1640s and 1650s.
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. Roger Ludlow
was an Oxford-educated lawyer and former Deputy Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He petitioned the General Court for rights to settle the area, and he led the March Commission in settling disputes over land rights. He is credited as drafting the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1650) in collaboration with Hooker, Winthrop, and others. He was also the first Deputy Governor of Connecticut.
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
The original colonies along the Connecticut River and in New Haven were established by separatist
established church in the colony by the time of the American Civil War.[3]
Economic and social history
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 1640 | 1,472 | — |
| 1650 | 4,139 | +181.2% |
| 1660 | 7,980 | +92.8% |
| 1670 | 12,603 | +57.9% |
| 1680 | 17,246 | +36.8% |
| 1690 | 21,645 | +25.5% |
| 1700 | 25,970 | +20.0% |
| 1710 | 39,450 | +51.9% |
| 1720 | 58,830 | +49.1% |
| 1730 | 75,530 | +28.4% |
| 1740 | 89,580 | +18.6% |
| 1750 | 111,280 | +24.2% |
| 1760 | 142,470 | +28.0% |
| 1770 | 183,881 | +29.1% |
| 1774 | 197,842 | +7.6% |
| 1780 | 206,701 | +4.5% |
| Source: 1640–1760;[4] 1774[5] includes New Haven Colony (1638–1664) 1770–1780[6] | ||
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.[7] 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.[8]
Connecticut's domestic architecture included a wide variety of house forms. They generally reflected the dominant English heritage and architectural tradition.[9]
See also
- List of colonial governors of Connecticut
- History of the Connecticut Constitution
- Connecticut Western Reserve
- History of Springfield, Massachusetts
References
Notes
- ^ Barck, Oscar T.; Lefler, Hugh T. (1958). Colonial America. New York: Macmillan. p. 398.
- ^ Barck, Oscar T.; Lefler, Hugh T. (1958). Colonial America. New York: Macmillan. pp. 258–259.
- ^ Barck, Oscar T.; Lefler, Hugh T. (1958). Colonial America. New York: Macmillan. p. 398.
- ISBN 978-0816025275.
- ISBN 978-0816025282.
- ^ "Colonial and Pre-Federal Statistics" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. p. 1168.
- ^ Daniels (1980)
- ^ Nutting (2000)
- ^ Smith (2007)
Bibliography
- Berkin, Carol (1996). First Generations: Women in Colonial America. New York, NY: Hill and Wang. ISBN 978-0-8090-1606-8.
- Bushman, Richard L. (1993). The Refinement of America: Persons, Houses, Cities. New York, NY: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-679-74414-6.
- Butler, Jon (1990). Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People. London: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-67405-601-5.
- Daniels, Bruce C. (1980). "Economic development in colonial and revolutionary Connecticut: an overview". JSTOR 1923811.
- Green, Jack P.; Pole, J. R. (1984). Colonial British America: Essays in the New History of the Early Modern Era. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 9780801830556.
- Hull, Brooks B.; Moran, Gerald F. (1999). "The churching of colonial Connecticut: a case study" (PDF). JSTOR 3512105.
- Lipman, Andrew (2008). ""A meanes to knitt them togeather": the exchange of body parts in the Pequot War". JSTOR 25096768.
- Nutting, P. Bradley (2000). "Colonial Connecticut's search for a staple: a mercantile paradox". New England Journal of History. 57 (1): 58–69.
- Smith, Ann Y. (2007). "A New Look at the Early Domestic Architecture of Connecticut". Connecticut History Review. 46 (1): 16–44. S2CID 254492604.
- Williams, Peter W., ed. (1999). Perspectives on American Religion and Culture. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 978-1-5771-8117-0.
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
- Buell, Richard, Jr. Dear Liberty: Connecticut's Mobilization for the Revolutionary War (1980), major scholarly study
- Bushman, Richard L. (1970). From Puritan to Yankee: Character and the Social Order in Connecticut, 1690–1765. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674029125.
- Collier, Christopher. Roger Sherman's Connecticut: Yankee Politics and the American Revolution (1971)
- Daniels, Bruce Colin. The Connecticut town: Growth and development, 1635–1790 (Wesleyan University Press, 1979)
- Daniels, Bruce C. "Democracy and Oligarchy in Connecticut Towns-General Assembly Office holding, 1701-1790" Social Science Quarterly (1975) 56#3 pp: 460-475.
- Fennelly, Catherine. Connecticut women in the Revolutionary era (Connecticut bicentennial series) (1975) 60pp
- Grant, Charles S. Democracy in the Connecticut Frontier Town of Kent (1970)
- Hooker, Roland Mather. The Colonial Trade of Connecticut (1936) online; 44pp
- Lambert, Edward Rodolphus (1838). History of the Colony of New Haven: Before and After the Union with Connecticut. Containing a Particular Description of the Towns which Composed that Government, Viz., New Haven, Milford, Guilford, Branford, Stamford, & Southold, L. I., with a Notice of the Towns which Have Been Set Off from "the Original Six.". Hitchcock & Stafford.
- Main, Jackson Turner. Connecticut Society in the Era of the American Revolution (pamphlet in the Connecticut bicentennial series) (1977)
- Pierson, George Wilson. History of Yale College (vol 1, 1952) scholarly history
- Selesky Harold E. War and Society in Colonial Connecticut (1990) 278 pp.
- Taylor, John M. The Witchcraft Delusion in Colonial Connecticut, 1647–1697 (1969) online
- Trumbull, James Hammond (1886). The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633–1884. E. L. Osgood., 700pp
- 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.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Colony of Connecticut.
- Archival collections
- Guide to the Connecticut Colony Land Deeds. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.
- Other
- Colonial Connecticut Records: The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, 1636–1776
- Colonial Connecticut Town Nomenclature
- Connecticut Constitutionalism, 1639–1789
- Timeline of Colonial Connecticut History
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