Connecticut's early infrastructure

Daily life in colonial Connecticut was unique among the other colonies of the British crown. It was comparable in form to other colonies but in function it did not entirely comport. In fact, the contrast of social infrastructure grew as time moved on. This contrast grew due to the noticeable lack of progression that characterized the other colonies, especially in the realm government. One can look macroscopically at colonial Connecticut to understand the microscopic daily level.

Connecticut was from the beginning an offshoot of three Massachusetts towns. These towns sought not to defect in a defiant sense, but to re-establish themselves as a theocracy in part and practice. Scholars and theologians debate whether Connecticut was throwing off a yoke of monarchial rule in favor of church autonomy. Most lucid arguments are in favor of a Connecticut desire to be self-governed in practice, but still adhered to a hierarchal submission to the sovereign crown. The social and political world in colonial Connecticut was intertwined into one; the church-centered religious experiment.

This “Puritan Experiment” had most of the practical characteristics common of colonial life in America during the 17^th and 18^th centuries. With over 80% of the population residing on farms or small farming communities, Connecticut was primarily agricultural. It did have a small exportation to other colonies growing as the colony itself grew. It seems that Connecticut was not in need of materials from the motherland herself; Connecticut traded for goods and supplies from within the colonies, with trade even into British interests in the Caribbean. The macrocosm does explain the microcosm quite appropriately in colonial Connecticut.

Whatever the vocation of the colonial Connecticut man, if he was a husband, father, and Christian, his family modeled Puritanical ethic based on Biblical models. It seems a large number of Puritans settled first in Connecticut, and set the standard of family life to a large degree. Cotton Mather, a Massachusetts Puritan pastor, said that families are the nurseries of all societies, and the first combinations of all mankind. Out of the nuclear family, with a male headship hierarchy resonating Biblical precepts, came the social and (early) political structure that would determine Connecticut’s course from colony through even statehood. This structure was built on the foundation of the congregational church. Ever town was built around one, with the pastor and lay elders in a social and governing authoritative position. This church-centered society dramatically contrasted with other colonies such as Virginia, where a taut relationship existed with England and the Anglican Church system.

All was not utopian in the sense of the Bible-based young commonwealth. Connecticut endured its share of internal strife with native Indians as much as any other of the colonies did. As mentioned in the last brog, the war and skirmishes with the Peguot Indians caused much colonial consternation. A benefit from the Pequot War was the alliance it wrought with Narrangasat and Mohegan Indians in the area. This coalition was give and take over the years, with the colonists eventually coming out on top as the dominating presence in the area.

The Pequot War was destructive to the colony. It was in fact the most destructive was per capita in United States history. The colonist reeled for ruined farms, crops, and livestock stolen or slaughtered. This conflict did prepare Connecticut for the presently unseen future of more Indian conflicts.

Andrews, Charles M.. "On Some Early Aspects of Connecticut History." The New ENgland Quarterly 17 no. 1 (1944): 3-24.

Graham, Judith S.. Puritan Family Life. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2000.

Trumball, Benjamin. A complete history of Connecticut. New Haven: Maltby, Goldsmith and Co. and Samuel Wadsworth, 1818.