History of Connecticut

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The U.S. state of Connecticut began as 500 distinct settlements, referred to at the time as
"Colonies" or "Plantations". These ventures were eventually combined under a single royal
charter in 1662.

Colonies in Connecticut
Various Algonquin tribes inhabited the area prior to European
settlement. The Dutch were the first Europeans in Connecticut. In
1614 Adriaen Block explored the coast of Long Island Sound, and
sailed up the Connecticut River at least as far as the confluence of
the Park River, site of modern Hartford, Connecticut. By 1623, the
new Dutch West India Company regularly traded for furs there and
ten years later they fortified it for protection from the Pequot Indians as well as from the
expanding English colonies. They fortified the site, which was named "House of Hope" (also
identified as "Fort Hoop", "Good Hope" and "Hope"), but encroaching English colonization
made them agree to withdraw in the Treaty of Hartford, and by 1654 they were gone.
The first English colonists came from the Bay Colony and Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts.
They settled at Windsor in 1633, Wethersfield in 1634, and Hartford in 1636. Thomas Hooker
led the Hartford group.
In 1631, Robert Rich, 2nd president of the Massachusetts Bay Colony granted a patent to the Say
and Sele Company for a colony, which became Fort Saybrook at the mouth of the Connecticut
River in 1636. Another Puritan group started the New Haven Colony in 1637. The Massachusetts
colonies did not seek to govern their progeny in Connecticut and Rhode Island. Communication
and travel were too difficult, and it was also convenient to have a place for nonconformists to go.
The English settlement and trading post at Windsor especially threatened the Dutch trade, since it
was upriver and more accessible to Native people from the interior. That fall and winter the
Dutch sent a party upriver as far as modern Springfield, Massachusetts spreading gifts to
convince the indigenous inhabitants in the area to bring their trade to the Dutch post at Hartford.
Unfortunately, they also spread smallpox and, by the end of the 1633-34 winter, the Native
population of the entire valley was reduced from over 8,000 to less than 2,000. Europeans took
advantage of this decimation by further settling the fertile valley.

The Pequot War

The Pequot War was the first serious armed conflict between the indigenous peoples and the
European settlers in New England. The ravages of disease, coupled with trade pressures, invited
the Pequots to tighten their hold on the river tribes. Additional incidents began to involve the
colonists in the area in 1635, and next spring their raid on Wethersfield prompted the three towns
to meet. Following the raid on Wethersfield, the war climaxed when 300 Pequot men, women,
and children were burned out of their village, hunted down and massacred.
On May 1, 1637, leaders of Connecticut Colony's river towns each sent delegates to the first
General Court held at the meeting house in Hartford. This was the start of self-government in
Connecticut. They pooled their militia under the command of John Mason of Windsor, and
declared war on the Pequots. When the war was over, there were officially no more Pequots. The
Treaty of Hartford in 1638 reached agreements with the other tribes that gave the colonists the
Pequot land.

Under the Fundamental Orders

The River Towns had created a general government when faced with the demands of a war. In
1639, they took the unprecedented step of documenting the source and form of that government.
They enumerated individual rights and concluded that a free people were the only source of
government's authority. Rapid growth and expansion grew under this new regime.
On April 22, 1662, the Connecticut Colony succeeded in gaining a Royal Charter that embodied
and confirmed the self-government that they had created with the Fundamental Orders. The only
significant change was that it called for a single Connecticut government with a southern limit at
Long Island Sound, and a western limit of the Pacific ocean, which meant that this charter was
still in conflict with the New Netherland colony.
Since 1638, the New Haven Colony had been independent of the river towns, but there other
factors added to the Charter. New Haven Colony lost its strongest governor Eaton, the economic
disasters of losing its only ocean going ship. Also there was the regicide case. The New Haven
Colony harbored several of the regicide judges who had sentenced King Charles I to death. The
New Haven Colony was absorbed by the Connecticut Colony partly as royal punishment by King
Charles II for harboring the regicide judges. The new government in New York, under the Duke
of York (a distrusted Catholic), had already taken their settlements on Long Island. By January
1665, they gave in and sent delegates from their towns to the general court.
Indian pressures were relieved for some time by the severity and ferocity of the Pequot War.
King Philip's War (16751676) brought renewed fighting to Connecticut. Although primarily a
war of Massachusetts, Connecticut provided men and supplies. This war effectively removed any
remaining Native American influence in Connecticut.

The Dominion of New England

In 1686, Sir Edmund Andros was commissioned as the Royal Governor of the Dominion of New
England. Andros maintained that his commission superseded their 1662 Charter. At first,
Connecticut ignored this situation. But in late October 1687, Andros arrived with troops and

naval support. Governor Robert Treat had no choice but to convene the assembly. Andros met
with the governor and General Court on the evening of October 31, 1687.

The Charter Oak in Hartford

Governor Andros praised their industry and government, but after he
read them his commission, he demanded their charter. As they placed
it on the table, people blew out all the candles. When the light was
restored, the charter was missing. According to legend, it was hidden
in the Charter Oak. Sir Edmund named four members to his Council for the Government of New
England and proceeded to his capital at Boston.
Since Andros viewed New York and Massachusetts as the important parts of his Dominion, he
mostly ignored Connecticut. Aside from some taxes demanded and sent to Boston, Connecticut
also mostly ignored the new government. When word arrived that the Glorious Revolution had
placed William and Mary on the throne, the citizens of Boston drove Andros into exile. The
Connecticut court met and voted on May 9, 1689 to restore the Charter. They also reelected
Robert Treat as governor each year until 1698.

Territorial disputes
Map showing the Connecticut, New Haven,
and Saybrook colonies and the CT-NY
dispute
According to a 1650 agreement with the
Dutch, the western boundary of Connecticut
ran north from the west side of Greenwich
Bay "provided the said line come not within
10 miles (16 km) of Hudson River." On the
other hand, Connecticut's original Charter in
1662 granted it all the land to the "South
Sea", i.e. the Pacific Ocean.
ALL that parte of our dominions in
Newe England in America bounded on the East by Norrogancett River, commonly called
Norrogancett Bay, where the said River falleth into the Sea, and on the North by the lyne
of the Massachusetts Plantacon, and on the south by the Sea, and in longitude as the lyne
of the Massachusetts Colony, runinge from East to West, (that is to say) from the Said
Norrogancett Bay on the East to the South Sea on the West parte, with the Islands
thervnto adioyneinge, Together with all firme lands ... TO HAVE AND TO HOLD ... for
ever....

Needless to say, this brought it into territorial conflict with those states which currently lie
between Connecticut and the Pacific. A patent issued on March 12, 1664, granted the Duke of
York "all the land from the west side of Connecticut River to the east side of Delaware Bay." In
October, 1664, Connecticut and New York agreed to grant Long Island to New York, and
establish the boundary between Connecticut and New York as a line from the Mamaroneck River
"north-northwest to the line of the Massachusetts", crossing the Hudson River near Peekskill and
the boundary of Massachusetts near the northwest corner of the current Ulster County, New
York. This agreement was never really accepted, however, and boundary disputes continued. The
Governor of New York issued arrest warrants for residents of Greenwich, Rye, and Stamford,
and founded a settlement north of Tarrytown in what Connecticut considered part of its territory
in May 1682. Finally, on November 28, 1683, the states negotiated a new agreement establishing
the border as 20 miles (32 km) east of the Hudson River, north to Massachusetts. In recognition
of the wishes of the residents, the 61,660 acres (249.5 km2) east of the Byram River making up
the Connecticut Panhandle were granted to Connecticut. In exchange, Rye was granted to New
York, along with a 1.81-mile (2.91 km) wide strip of land running north from Ridgefield to
Massachusetts alongside Dutchess, Putnam, and Westchester Counties, New York, known as the
"Oblong".

A map showing Connecticut's western land claims.

In the 1750s, the western frontier remained on the other side of New York. In 1754 the
Susquehannah Company of Windham, Connecticut obtained from a group of Native Americans a
deed to a tract of land along the Susquehanna River which covered about one-third of
Pennsylvania. This venture met with the disapproval of not only Pennsylvania, but also of many
in Connecticut including the Deputy Governor, who opposed Governor Jonathan Trumbull's
support for the company, fearing that pressing these claims would endanger the charter of the
colony. In 1769, Wilkes-Barre was founded by John Durkee and a group of 240 Connecticut
settlers. The British government finally ruled "that no Connecticut settlements could be made
until the royal pleasure was known". In 1773 the issue was settled in favor of Connecticut and
Westmoreland, Connecticut was established as a town and later a county.
Pennsylvania did not accede to the ruling, however, and open warfare broke out between them
and Connecticut, ending with an attack in July, 1778, which killed approximately 150 of the
settlers and forced thousands to flee. While they periodically attempted to regain their land, they

were continuously repulsed, until, in December 1783, a commission ruled in favor of

Pennsylvania. After complex litigation, in 1786, Connecticut dropped its claims by a deed of
cession to Congress, in exchange for freedom for war debt and confirmation of the rights to land
further west in present-day Ohio, which became known as the Western Reserve. Pennsylvania
granted the individual settlers from Connecticut the titles to their land claims. Although the
region had been called Westmoreland County, Connecticut, it has no relationship with the current
Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.
The Western Reserve, which Connecticut received in recompense for giving up all claims to any
Pennsylvania land in 1786, constituted a strip of land in what is currently northeast Ohio,
120 miles (190 km) wide from east to west bordering Lake Erie and Pennsylvania. Connecticut
owned this territory until selling it to the Connecticut Land Company in 1795 for $1,200,000,
which resold parcels of land to settlers. In 1796, the first settlers, led by Moses Cleaveland,
began a community which was to become Cleveland, Ohio; in a short time, the area became
known as "New Connecticut".
An area 25 miles (40 km) wide at the western end of the Western Reserve, set aside by
Connecticut in 1792 to compensate those from Danbury, New Haven, Fairfield, Norwalk, and
New London who had suffered heavy losses when they were burnt out by fires set by British
raids during the War of Independence, became known as the Firelands. By this time, however,
most of those granted the relief by the state were either dead or too old to actually move there.
The Firelands now constitutes Erie and Huron Counties, as well as part of Ashland County, Ohio.

The American Revolution (1775-1789)

Governor Jonathan Trumbull

Connecticut was the only one of the 13 colonies involved in the American Revolution that did
not have an internal revolution of its own. It had been largely self-governing since its beginnings.
Governor Jonathan Trumbull was elected every year from 1769 to 1784. Connecticut's
government continued unchanged even after the revolution, until the United States Constitution
was adopted in 1789. A Connecticut Privateer was the Guilford formerly HMS MArs.
Several significant events during the American Revolution occurred in Connecticut. Notably, the
landing of a British invasion force in Westport, Connecticut which subsequently marched to and
burnt the city of Danbury, Connecticut for safeguarding Patriot supplies and was engaged by

General David Wooster and General Benedict Arnold on their return in the Battle of Ridgefield
in 1777, which would deter future strategic landing attempts by the British for the remainder of
the war. General William Tryon raided the Connecticut coast in July 1779, focusing on New
Haven, Norwalk, and Fairfield. The French General the Comte de Rochambeau celebrated the
first Catholic Mass in Connecticut at Lebanon in 1781 while marching through the state from
Rhode Island to rendezvous with General George Washington in Dobbs Ferry, New York.

Early National Period (1789-1818)

New England was the stronghold of the Federalist party. One historian explains how well
organized it was in Connecticut:
It was only necessary to perfect the working methods of the organized body of officeholders who made up the nucleus of the party. There were the state officers, the assistants,
and a large majority of the Assembly. In every county there was a sheriff with his
deputies. All of the state, county, and town judges were potential and generally active
workers. Every town had several justices of the peace, school directors and, in Federalist
towns, all the town officers who were ready to carry on the party's work. Every parish
had a "standing agent," whose anathemas were said to convince at least ten voting
deacons. Militia officers, state's attorneys, lawyers, professors and schoolteachers were in
the van of this "conscript army." In all, about a thousand or eleven hundred dependent
officer-holders were described as the inner ring which could always be depended upon
for their own and enough more votes within their control to decide an election. This was
the Federalist machine.[1]
Given the power of the Federalists, the Democratic-Republicans had to work harder to win. In
1806, the state leadership sent town leaders instructions for the forthcoming elections. Every
town manager was told by state leaders "to appoint a district manager in each district or section
of his town, obtaining from each an assurance that he will faithfully do his duty." Then, the town
manager was instructed to compile lists and total up the number of taxpayers, the number of
eligible voters, how many were "decided republicans," "decided federalists," or "doubtful," and
finally to count the number of supporters who were not currently eligible to vote but who might
qualify (by age or taxes) at the next election. These highly detailed returns were to be sent to the
county manager. They, in turn, were to compile county-wide statistics and send it on to the state
manager. Using the newly compiled lists of potential voters, the managers were told to get all the
eligibles to the town meetings, and help the young men qualify to vote. At the annual official
town meeting, the managers were told to, "notice what republicans are present, and see that each
stays and votes till the whole business is ended. And each District-Manager shall report to the
Town-Manager the names of all republicans absent, and the cause of absence, if known to him."
Of utmost importance, the managers had to nominate candidates for local elections, and to print
and distribute the party ticket. The state manager was responsible for supplying party newspapers
to each town for distribution by town and district managers.[2] This highly coordinated "get-outthe-vote" drive would be familiar to modern political campaigners, but was the first of its kind in
world history.

Connecticut prospered during the era, as the seaports were busy and the first textile factories
were built. The American Embargo and the British blockade during the War of 1812 severely
hurt the export business, but did help promote the rapid growth of industry. Eli Whitney of New
Haven was one of many engineers and inventors who made the state a world leader in machine
tools and industrial technology generally. The state was known for its political conservatism,
typified by its Federalist party and the Yale College of Timothy Dwight. The foremost
intellectuals were Dwight and Noah Webster, who compiled his great dictionary in New Haven.
Religious tensions polarized the state, as the established Congregational Church, in alliance with
the Federalists, tried to maintain its grip on power. The failure of the Hartford Convention in
1814 wounded the Federalists, who were finally upended by the Republicans in 1817.

Modernization and industry

Main article: History of Connecticut industry
Up until this time, Connecticut had adhered to the 1662 Charter, and with the independence of
the American colonies over forty years prior, much of what the Charter stood for was no longer
relevant. In 1818, a new constitution was adopted that was the first piece of written legislation to
separate church and state in Connecticut, and give equality all religions. Gubernatorial powers
were also expanded as well as increased independence for courts by allowing their judges to
serve life terms.
Connecticut started off with the raw materials of abundant running water and navigable
waterways, and using the Yankee work ethic quickly became an industrial leader. Between the
birth of the U.S. patent system in 1790 and 1930, Connecticut had more patents issued per capita
than any other state; in the 1800s, when the U.S. as a whole was issued one patent per three
thousand population, Connecticut inventors were issued one patent for every 7001000 residents.
Connecticut's first recorded invention was a lapidary machine, by Abel Buell of Killingworth, in
1765.

Civil War era

As a result of the industrialization of the state and New England as a region, Connecticut
manufacturers played a prominent role in supplying the Union Army and Navy with weapons,
ammunition, and military materiel during the Civil War. A number of Connecticut residents were
generals in the Federal service and Gideon Welles was the United States Secretary of the Navy
and a confidant of President Abraham Lincoln.
Starting in the 1830s, and accelerating when Connecticut abolished slavery entirely in 1848,
African Americans from in- and out-of-state began relocating to urban centers for employment
and opportunity, forming new neighborhoods such as Bridgeport's Little Liberia.[3]

Twentieth century
Immigration

Connecticut factories in Bridgeport, New Haven, Waterbury and Hartford were magnets for
European immigrants. The largest groups comprised Italian American, and Polish American, and
other Eastern Europeans. They brought much needed unskilled labor and Catholicism to a
historically Protestant state. A significant number of Jewish immigrants also arrived in this
period due to an 1843 change in the law.[4] Connecticut's population was almost 30% immigrant
by 1910.
In World War I (19171918), munitions were the most prosperous business in Connecticut, and
would remain so until the Great Depression.
Not everyone welcomed the new immigrants and the change in the state's ethnic and religious
makeup. The Ku Klux Klan had a following among some in Connecticut after it was reorganized
in Georgia in 1915. It preached a doctrine of Protestant control of America and wanted to keep
down blacks, Jews and Catholics. The Klan enjoyed only a brief period of popularity in the state,
but it had a peak of 15,000 members in 1925. The group was most active in New Haven, New
Britain and Stamford, which all had large Catholic populations.[5] By 1926, the Klan leadership
was divided, and it lost strength, although it continued to maintain small, local branches for years
afterward in Stamford, Bridgeport, Darien, Greenwich and Norwalk.[6] The Klan has since
disappeared from the state.

Depression and War Years

Some bridges on the Merritt Parkway were constructed by the Works Progress Administration
With rising unemployment in both urban and rural areas, Connecticut Democrats saw their
chance to return to power. The hero of the movement was Yale English professor Governor
Wilbur Lucius Cross (19311939), who emulated much of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal
policies by creating new public services and instituted a minimum wage. The Merritt Parkway
was constructed in this period.
However, in 1938, the Democratic Party was wracked by controversy, which quickly allowed the
Republicans to gain control once again, with Governor Raymond E. Baldwin. Connecticut
became a highly competitive, two-party state.
The lingering Depression soon gave way to unparalleled opportunity with the United States
involvement in World War II (19411945). Roosevelt's call for America to be the Arsenal of
Democracy led to remarkable growth in munition-related inductries, such as airplane engines,

radio, radar, proximity fuzes, rifles, and a thousand other products. Pratt and Whitney made
airplane engines, Cheney sewed silk parachutes, and Electric Boat built submarines. This was
coupled with traditional manufacturing including guns, ships, uniforms, munitions, and artillery.
Ken Burns focused on Waterbury's munitions production in his 2007 miniseries The War.
Although most munitions production ended in 1945, high tech electronics and airplane parts
continued.

Cold War Years

In the Cold War years, Connecticut's suburbs thrived while its cities struggled. Connecticut built
the first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus (SSN-571) and other essential weapons
for The Pentagon. The increased job market gave the state the highest per capita income at the
beginning of the 1960s. The increased standard of living could be seen in the various suburban
neighborhoods that began to develop outside major cities. Construction of major highways such
as the Connecticut Turnpike caused former small towns to become locations for large-scale
development, a trend that continues to this day.
However, all of these developments also led to the economic downfall of many of Connecticut's
cities, many of which remain dotted with abandoned mills and other broken-down buildings.
During this time, Connecticut's cities saw major growth in the African American and Latino
populations. African Americans and Latinos inherited urban spaces that were no longer a high
priority for the state or private industry, and by the 1980s crime and urban blight were major
issues. In fact, the poor conditions that many inhabited were cause for militant movements that
pushed for the gentrification of ghettos and the desegregation of the school system. In 1987,
Hartford, became the first American city to elect an African-American woman as mayor, Carrie
Saxon Perry.
Connecticut business thrived until the end of the 1980s, with many well-known corporations
moving to Fairfield County, including General Electric, American Brands, and Union Carbide.
The state also benefited from the defense buildup initiated by Ronald Reagan, due to such major
employers as Electric Boat shipyards, Sikorsky helicopters, and Pratt & Whitney jet engines.

The late 20th century

Connecticut's dependence on the defense industry posed an economic challenge at the end of the
Cold War. The resulting budget crisis helped elect Lowell Weicker as Governor on a third party
ticket in 1990. Weicker's remedy, a state income tax, proved effective in balancing the budget but
politically unpopular, as Weicker retired after a single term.
With newly "reconquered" land, the Pequots initiated plans for the construction of a multimillion dollar casino complex to be built on reservation land. The Foxwoods Casino was
completed in 1992 and the enormous revenue it received made the Mashantucket Pequot
Reservation one of the wealthiest in the country. With the newfound money, great educational
and cultural initiatives were carried out, including the construction of the Mashantucket Pequot
Museum and Research Center. The Mohegan Reservation gained political recognition shortly
thereafter and, in 1994, opened another successful casino (Mohegan Sun) near the town of

Uncasville. The success of casino gambling helped shift the state's economy away from
manufacturing to entertainment, such as ESPN, financial services, including hedge funds and
pharmaceutical firms such as Pfizer.

21st century
In the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, 65 state residents were killed. The vast majority
were Fairfield County residents who were working in the World Trade Center. Greenwich lost 12
residents, Stamford and Norwalk each lost nine and Darien lost six.[7] A state memorial was later
set up at Sherwood Island State Park in Westport. The New York City skyline can be seen from
the park.
In April 2005, Connecticut passed a law which grants all rights of marriage to same-sex couples.
However, the law required that such unions be called "civil unions", and that the title of marriage
be limited to those unions whose parties are of the opposite sex. The state was the first to pass a
law permitting civil unions without a prior court proceeding. In October 2008, the Supreme
Court of Connecticut ordered same-sex marriage legalized.
In July 2009, the Connecticut legislature overrode a veto by Governor M. Jodi Rell to pass
SustiNet, the first significant public-option health care reform legislation in the nation.[8]
A number of political scandals rocked Connecticut in the early 21st century, highlighted by the
resignation of Governor John G. Rowland during a corruption investigation in 2004. Rowland
later plead guilty to federal charges, and his successor M. Jodi Rell, focused her administration
on reforms in the wake of the Rowland scandal.
The state's criminal justice system also dealt with the first execution in the state since 1960, the
2005 execution of serial killer Michael Ross and was rocked by the horrific July 2007 home
invasion murders in Cheshire. As the accused perpetrators of the Petit murders were out on
parole, Governor M. Jodi Rell promised a full investigation into the state's criminal justice
policies.[9