Connecticut began as three distinct settlements including, most notably, the Connecticut Colony (1637), which separated from Massachusetts to give all freemen—not just church members—the vote; and the New Haven Colony (1638), founded on Mosaic law. Both backed the English Puritan revolution, and New Haven sheltered English regicides after the Restoration. Streets there still bear the names Whalley, Goffe, and Dixwell. When the Dominion of New England imposed royal rule in 1686, Connecticut men hid their 1662 charter—which had established an elected governor and independent judiciary—in the legendary Charter Oak on October 31, 1687 and helped overthrow Governor Edmund Andros in 1689. That charter endured through the Revolution and until 1818 when Connecticut adopted a new state constitution. During the war, the state’s farm-provisioning economy pivoted from supplying the Caribbean to supplying the Continental Army, earning the nickname “the Provisions State.” Asked why Connecticut was so fiercely committed to independence, Roger Sherman gave a brief answer: “our charter.”
Interviewees
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Natalie Belanger
- Public Programs Manager, Connecticut Museum of Culture and History
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Katherine Hermes
- Professor Emeritus, Central Connecticut State University
- Publisher of Connecticut Explored
