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Chapter 5ConnecticutFirst 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 ofthe Dutch trading post.

1634-1638: Pequot War. Fort Saybrook is eectively besieged throughout the winterof 1636-1637. In the spring, Pequot raids on other settlements increase. Windsor,Hartford, and Wetherseld 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 Englands 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 conrming 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 Philips War. More than half of New Englands 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 Connecticuts 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. NewHaven 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 ElihuYale.

1722: Jailbreak riot in Hartford.

1734: Riot against ship seizure in Hartford

County.

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-inuenced 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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1775: Anti-Loyalist riot at East Haddam. On April 23, the Second Company, Gov-ernors 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. eFundamental Orders of Connecticut, ratied 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 Faireld 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 worlds 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 squaremarked with a monuments at each cornercontains 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 ofe Librarian Company, and the residents are only too

happy to point out the Charter Oak and tell its story to visitors.

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unseen and attach a 130-pound keg of gunpowder to its hull, detonated by a timefuse. Bushnell is a good patriot, but either side would pay well for his designs, whichinclude barrages ofoating mines.

MysteriesCharles Island

Also known asrice-Cursed Island, Charles Island is just othe coast of Mil-ford. It was sacred to the Paugussett, who cursed the island after they lost it to set-tlers. Captain Kidd is said to have buried a treasure there, and cursed anyone wholooked for itas did other unnamed 18th-century sailors. e island is said to behaunted.

The Sleeping Giant

is hill near Hamden is said by the Quinnipac to be the body of a troublesomegiant named Hobbomock, cast into an eternal sleep by Keihtan the creator god. Na-tive Americans or apocalyptic cultists could cause enormous destruction by wakinghim.

The Moodus Noises

Since pre-colonial times, the area around Moodus, near Hartford, has been not-ed for the strange rumbling and crashing noises that ll the air. Native Americans

and Puritans both attribute the noises to a demonic origin.

Gungywamp

Just across the river from New London, this prehistoric stone complex includesstone circles, standing stones, multiple stone chambers with astronomical align-ments, and a blu called e Cli of Tears which causes inexplicable bouts ofsadness and depression in those who stand near it.e site is at least 2,000 years old

and may have been a temple.

Dudleytown

Dudleytown was founded in 1740 in the far north-west of Connecticut. It isstill inhabited in 1776, but the eects of its cursewhich came with the Dudleyfamily from Englandare evident in the large number of abandoned houses andthe generally grim atmosphere. Demonic manifestations sometimes occur, usuallylinked to some member of the Dudley family.