our history: Connecticut

INTRODUCTION

Connecticut, one of the six New England states, in the northeastern United States. Connecticut was the fifth of the original 13 states ratifying the Constitution of the United States on January 9, 1788, and it played an important role in the development of the United States. Settlement in Connecticut dates from the 1630s and many of the state’s modern towns and cities can trace their origins back to the 17th or 18th century. Hartford is the capital of Connecticut and the center of the state’s largest metropolitan area. Bridgeport is the state’s largest city.

Rural Connecticut retains much of the charm of colonial New England. It is an area of churches with white steeples, charming colonial homes that face elm-shaded streets, and village greens where once, perhaps, the local militia trained for the Continental Army. However, modern Connecticut is principally an urban and suburban residential state. Many of the nation’s early industrial advances, including the development of mass production, first took place in Connecticut. Cities and towns in the state were identified by the products they produced—hats in Danbury, brass in Waterbury, thread in Colchester. Although the economy today is decreasing its reliance on manufacturing, becoming instead more diverse and service-based, the state remains an important producer of such products as electronic equipment, aircraft engines, and spacecraft equipment.

The name Connecticut is probably derived from a Native American word, Quinnehtukqut, meaning “beside the long tidal river.” The state’s official nickname, adopted in 1959, is the Constitution State, chosen to commemorate the colony’s adoption in 1639 of the Fundamental Orders, sometimes regarded as the first written constitution. Among its numerous unofficial nicknames are the Nutmeg State, an unflattering reference to the reputed attempts of Yankee peddlers from Connecticut to sell wooden nutmegs in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the Arsenal of the Nation, a reference to Connecticut’s role as a major supplier of weapons in the American Revolution (1775-1783) and other wars.

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

Connecticut is the third smallest state of the Union, with an area of only 14,356 sq km (5,543 sq mi), including 417 sq km (161 sq mi) of inland water and 1,393 sq km (538 sq mi) of coastal water over which it has jurisdiction. Connecticut is roughly rectangular in shape, except for a narrow strip of land in the southwest that projects westward to within about 19 km (about 12 mi) of New York City. The state has a maximum distance from east to west of 163 km (101 mi) and a greatest distance north to south of 117 km (73 mi). The mean elevation of Connecticut is approximately 150 m (500 ft).

Natural Regions

Connecticut can be divided into four major natural regions. They are the Taconic Range; the New England Highland, or Upland, consisting of the Eastern Highland and the Western Highland; the Connecticut Valley Lowland; and the Seaboard Lowland, all of which form part of the New England province, which in turn forms part of the Appalachian Region.

In the northwest the Connecticut portion of the Taconic Range forms the highest section of the state. From there the land slopes gradually southeastward across the long forested ridges and rolling hills of the Eastern and Western highlands to the narrow Seaboard Lowland along Long Island Sound.

The Taconic Range, or Taconics, occupy only a small area in Connecticut but include some of the wildest and most rugged parts of the state. Much of the region is forested. The principal ranges extend from northeast to southwest and in many places rise to more than 600 m (2,000 ft) above sea level. On the southern slope of Mount Frissell, which lies on the Massachusetts state line, is Connecticut’s highest point, at 725 m (2,380 ft) above sea level.

The New England Highland, or Upland, can be divided into the Western Highland and the Eastern Highland. In the Western Highland, a rugged and rocky area, the principal ranges are the Litchfield Hills, which form a southward continuation of the Berkshire Hills in Massachusetts, and the Norfolk Hills. The Housatonic River and its tributaries, which drain most of the Western Highland, flow southward in deep river valleys. Forests and small patches of woodland cover much of this area.

The Eastern Highland is a region of low, wooded hills. The highest points are little more than 300 m (1,000 ft) above sea level in the north and less than 60 m (200 ft) in the south, where the highland merges with the Seaboard Lowland. Granites, schists, and other hard, ancient rocks frequently show through the thin soil cover, and piles of boulders and stones, left by retreating glaciers, give the wooded Eastern Highland an often rocky and rugged appearance.

The Connecticut Valley Lowland is a broad lowland, which lies between the Eastern and Western highlands. The lowland is formed of reddish sandstones and shales, which are less resistant than the crystalline rock found on either side and consequently have been worn down to form low-lying land. The principal river is the Connecticut, which occupies the lowland as far south as Middletown. There the river turns southeastward across the Eastern Highland. The southern part of the lowland is drained principally by the Quinnipiac River. Because the Connecticut River leaves the lowlands, the Connecticut Valley Lowland is not identical with the Connecticut River valley.

Within the sandstones of the lowland are beds of trap, or traprock, which form prominent, steep-sided ridges. The ridges are generally forested and extend across the lowland in a north-south direction.

The Seaboard Lowland is a narrow strip of land between the Eastern and Western highlands and the coast. It is broken near New Haven by the southern Connecticut Valley Lowland. Most of the region is less than 150 m (500 ft) above sea level.

Rivers and Lakes

The three major rivers draining Connecticut flow southward to Long Island Sound. The Connecticut River, New England’s longest river, flows southward from Massachusetts to enter Long Island Sound at Old Saybrook. The mouth of the river valley is a deep estuary about 30 km (about 20 mi) long. The Housatonic River, the only other river that crosses the entire breadth of the state, enters Connecticut in the northwest, near Canaan, and then winds across the Western Highland to the sound. Its principal tributary is the Naugatuck, which joins the main stream at Derby. The Thames River flows into Long Island Sound at New London. A long tidal estuary, the Thames forms the mouth of the Yantic and Shetucket rivers. Those two rivers, together with the Quinebaug, the Willimantic, and the Natchaug, which are tributaries of the Shetucket, are the principal rivers of the Eastern Highland. In addition, numerous short streams, unrelated to the three major river systems, drain the south. Connecticut has about 6,000 lakes and ponds. The largest, Lake Candlewood in the Western Highland, is a reservoir that covers only 23 sq km (9 sq mi). The largest natural lake, Bantam Lake, also in the Western Highland, covers less than 5 sq km (2 sq mi).

Coastline

The state’s shoreline, when all the bays and inlets are taken into account, has a total length of 995 km (618 mi). The coastline is deeply indented by long estuaries and rocky inlets, and there are many sandy beaches and stretches of tidal marsh. There are several good harbors along the coast, the most important of which is at New Haven. A few small islands lie offshore in Long Island Sound.

Climate

Connecticut has long, hot summers and cold winters. The climate does not vary greatly from place to place, although the northwest corner generally experiences more severe winters.

Temperature

The southwestern coastal area is generally slightly warmer than the rest of the state in summer, and the Taconics are the coldest area in winter. Average July temperatures range from 20° to 22° C (68° to 72° F), but actual daytime temperatures can rise into the lower 30°s C (lower 90°s F). Average January temperatures range from about -4 ° C (about 24 ° F) in the Taconics to about -1 ° C (about 30 ° F) in the southeast.

Precipitation

Precipitation (rainfall and snowfall) is evenly distributed throughout the year. Most places receive about 1,000 to 1,300 mm (about 40 to 50 in) a year. Severe droughts are uncommon. Thunderstorms and hailstorms are likely to occur in summer. In winter, snowfall is heavy, especially in the northwest.

Growing Season

The growing season, which is the period between the last killing frost in the spring and the first killing frost in the fall, is about 150 days long in most of the state and about 190 days long in more protected sections along the coast. Destructive frosts seldom occur later than the end of April along the coast or later than mid-May farther inland. Frosts usually occur again in the first week of October.

Soils

Thin, stony soils, which are generally infertile and unsuited for crop farming, cover most of Connecticut. Deeper soils, mainly loams, are found in the Connecticut, Housatonic, and Naugatuck river valleys. In addition, terraces on the sides of the Connecticut River valley, and other valleys, are covered with stone-free soils that can be farmed. Sandy soils predominate in the Seaboard Lowland and in the Connecticut Valley Lowland south of Middletown.

Plant Life

Forests cover 60 percent of the state’s total land area. Forests and woodlands occupy most of the rougher land in the Taconics and in the Eastern and Western highlands. Forests are also found on most of the higher sections of the traprock ridges in the Connecticut Valley Lowland.

Hemlock and white pine, found throughout the state, are the most common conifers. Elsewhere are found oak and hickory, as well as other hardwoods such as red cedar, sweet birch, American basswood, hop hornbeam, and butternut. The white oak is the state tree. The most common shade trees include Norway and sugar maple, the red oak, and the ash.

Common flowering shrubs include dogwood, azalea, sweet fern, wild cherry, bayberry, sheep laurel, and mountain laurel, the state flower. Huckleberry, blueberry, black raspberry, and blackberry bushes are abundant; and there are a few cranberry bogs. Among the many species of wild flowers are the trailing arbutus, violet, hepatica, bloodroot, jack-in-the-pulpit, and cowslip.

Animal Life

The most common wild animals are the red fox, skunk, woodchuck, muskrat, raccoon, gray squirrel, coyote, opossum, and cottontail-rabbit. The white-tailed deer, whose numbers were once seriously depleted, are now extremely populous. Some beaver can be found in the state.

The robin, Connecticut’s state bird, frequents the state throughout the year. Among the many other species, both resident and migrant, are the tree sparrow, song sparrow, blue jay, crow, American goldfinch, black-capped chickadee, and white-breasted nuthatch. Several species of gull, tern, sandpiper, hawk, woodpecker, warbler, and vireo are also found in the state. In winter the slate-colored junco, pine grosbeak, winter wren, and bald eagle are found there. The snowy owl is an occasional visitor. Game birds include the ruffed grouse, bobwhite, ring-necked pheasant, woodcock, duck, and geese.

Common freshwater fish include perch, pickerel, brook trout, bullhead, and bluegill. Saltwater fish include the blackfish, winter and summer flounder, sea bass, bluefish, butterfish, striped bass and scup. Fishing the spring shad run is a Connecticut tradition.

Conservation

Programs for the preservation of the state’s natural resources, particularly forests, soils, water supply, and fisheries, have been undertaken, including a widespread reforestation program. Fish and game resources, once seriously depleted, are increasing as a result of conservation programs. Efforts include those to increase the number of shellfish, which are threatened by pollution of the coastal waters. Concern over the decrease of wildlife resulted in the restriction of dredging and development of marshes and tidal wetlands. In 2006 the state had 14 hazardous waste sites on a national priority list for cleanup due to their severity or proximity to people. Progress was being made in efforts to reduce pollution; in the period 1995–2000 the amount of toxic chemicals discharged into the environment had been reduced by 48 percent. Air quality also was improving. Between the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Hartford metropolitan region reduced from seven to one the number of days each year in which carbon monoxide in the air exceeded federal standards, although Fairfield and New Haven counties did not experience such improvements.

III

ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES

From the American Revolution, before which it was a predominantly agricultural state, until the mid-20th century, Connecticut was primarily an industrial state. The small-scale industries that existed in the 17th century to supply the needs of the early colonists first began to expand and prosper after the revolution. Subsequently, manufacturing expanded rapidly, aided by the abundance of water power, by the availability of raw materials from elsewhere in the country and from abroad, and by the remarkable ingenuity of numerous inventors and business people. By the late 1990s Connecticut also had a large services sector. A number of major corporations maintained headquarters in the state, many in Fairfield County, in the southwest. It is the financial sector, however, that contributes the most revenue to Connecticut’s economy, driven in large part by a large insurance industry centered in Hartford.

Connecticut had a work force of 1,844,000 people in 2006. Of those the largest share, 40 percent, worked in the diverse service industry, doing such jobs as working in dry cleaners or data processing. Another 17 percent were employed in wholesale or retail trade; 11 percent in manufacturing; 15 percent in federal, state, or local government, including those in the military; 20 percent in finance, insurance, or real estate; 4 percent in construction; 18 percent in transportation or public utilities; and 1 percent in farming (including agricultural services), forestry, or fishing. Fewer than one percent of workers held jobs in mining. In 2005, 16 percent of Connecticut’s workers were members of a labor union.

Agriculture

There were 4,200 farms in Connecticut in 2005. Of those a minority produced annual income of more than $10,000; most of the rest were sidelines for operators who held other jobs. Farmland covered 145,687 hectares (360,000 acres), of which 48 percent was used to raise crops. Most of the rest was pasture for livestock.

Livestock and Livestock Products

Sales of livestock and livestock products accounted for 34 percent of the total sales of Connecticut’s farm products in 2004. The production of poultry and eggs is a leading agricultural activity in the state. Eggs and chickens for distribution in the nearby urban markets are produced on specialized poultry farms. Incubators, brooder houses, and other costly equipment are needed for poultry raising, but fertile soils and flat land are not required. Poultry raising is, therefore, well suited to the farms in the Eastern and Western highlands, though it is concentrated in the Eastern highlands. Dairy farming is another leading agricultural activity. Most of the state’s dairy farmers specialize in the production of milk for urban markets. Beef cattle, sheep, and hogs are also raised on Connecticut farms.

Crops

Sales of greenhouse and nursery products are the leading source of farm income in Connecticut. Hay, sweet corn, and tobacco are the most valuable field crops. Yet tobacco fields occupy only about 1 percent of the cultivated cropland. Tobacco is grown mainly in the Connecticut Valley Lowland. Connecticut Shadegrown, a variety of premium tobacco used for cigar wrappers, is grown under a permanent cover of open-mesh cloth. The cloth, supported several feet above the crop by poles, protects the tobacco from direct sunlight and heavy rains. Other types of tobacco are grown in open fields. Potatoes, hay, and corn are sometimes grown in rotation with tobacco.

Vegetables and fruits are cultivated in the lowlands. Sweet corn is sold directly to markets and consumers rather than processed, and commands a high price because of its freshness. Many other vegetables, raised on farms in the vicinity of the larger cities, are also sold directly to consumers. Apples, grown mainly in the Connecticut Valley Lowland, are the principal fruit crop.

Fisheries

Salmon and shad were once abundant in the rivers of Connecticut, and a variety of other fish and shellfish were once taken from the coastal waters. The annual fish catch declined after the late 19th century, partly because of the increasing water pollution of the rivers and coastal waters. Since the early 1970s Connecticut has successfully followed a program that improved both coastal water quality and shellfish production. Water quality management, habitat improvement, and the seeding of shellfish has revived the industry, and large amounts of coastal waters are leased to private shellfish farmers. The eastern oyster and the hard-shell clam have been the focus of the program, although soft-shell clams and bay oysters have also benefited. The principal fish caught in Connecticut today are bluefish and striped bass. Lobster and oysters are the leading shellfish and provide most of the income from fishing. The value of the fish catch was $33.4 million in 2004.

Forestry

Lumbering now plays only a minor role in the state’s economy. During the 18th and 19th centuries, lumber was cut for use in Connecticut’s shipbuilding industry and was also the major fuel used in buildings, lime kilns, and brass mills. Hardwood trees, principally white oak, American basswood, and hop hornbeam, provide most of the cut lumber.

Mining

Connecticut has only a few known mineral deposits of commercial worth. Copper and lead were mined in colonial times and used in making household utensils. Iron was also mined, and during the American Revolution, Connecticut supplied iron for the manufacture of weapons, ammunition, and other military equipment for the colonial forces. However, nonmetals now account for all of the state’s mineral production. Traprock, which is used in road-building, and sand and gravel are the state’s most valuable minerals.

Manufacturing

Connecticut established a thriving industrial complex in the colonial period, largely because its fast-flowing streams and waterfalls could easily be harnessed for power. Nails were produced early in the 1700s, and brass making was introduced in 1749. Weapons manufactured in Connecticut were used to fight the British during the American Revolution. In the 1790s the state was known for its hats (made in Danbury) and timepieces (made primarily in Watertown). Connecticut resident Eli Whitney developed the cotton gin, which rapidly separated the seeds from cotton and made its cultivation, and the production of cotton cloth, economical. The state’s armaments industry was an important supplier of firearms during World War I (1914-1918) and World War II (1939-1945), and the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine was launched from a Connecticut shipyard in 1954.

The leading industry in Connecticut in the late 1990s was the manufacture of industrial machinery, including computers, office machines, ball and roller bearings, turbines, and engines. Other leading manufacturers were the makers of transportation equipment, particularly helicopters, aircraft engines, propellers, ships, and submarines; the producers of chemicals and related products, particularly pharmaceuticals and soaps; and firms engaged in developing instruments for surgery and medicine, process control devices, measuring equipment, and optical instruments and lenses. Another important industry was metal fabrication, including the manufacture of small arms and ordnance, hardware and hand tools, and cutlery.

The principal manufacturing centers are Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven, Waterbury, Stamford, New London, New Britain, Norwalk, Danbury, and Meriden. Some of them are traditionally noted for a single product, but all produce numerous other goods as well. New Britain is known particularly for hardware and Bristol for specialty electrical equipment and mechanical springs. Groton produces submarines for the United States Navy.

Electricity

Until the middle 19th century, many swift-flowing streams and waterfalls turned the waterwheels of mills and factories built along rivers and streams. The state’s water-power resources were an important factor in its early industrialization and were later exploited by its electric power industry. In 2005, however, 48 percent of the electricity generated in the state came from conventional steam plants fueled by oil or coal. Hydroelectric dams generated only 1 percent of electricity produced in the state. Connecticut’s four nuclear power plants all ceased operations in the mid-1990s.

Insurance

The insurance industry dates from the 18th century when marine insurance was underwritten to cover the hazards of shipping. Connecticut insurance companies now underwrite policies for fire insurance, traveler’s insurance, automobile insurance, aircraft insurance, and life, accident, and disability insurance. Many insurance companies with headquarters in the state have their home offices at Hartford.

Transportation

Highways

Connecticut serves as a major gateway for highway routes into the New England region. The state’s extensive highway system includes several heavily traveled roads linking New York City with Boston. Among the major highways in Connecticut is Interstate 95, which extends across the southern part of the state. This route follows the route of the famous Boston Post Road, which linked Boston with New York City in colonial times. In 2005 the state had 34,107 km (21,193 mi) of highways, including 557 km (346 mi) of the federal interstate highway system.

Railroads

The principal passenger railroad in Connecticut is operated by the Metro-North division of New York State’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Metro-North’s main line in the state carries thousands of commuters daily between New York City and suburbs in Connecticut. Amtrak provides passenger service along the shore and through Hartford. The largest freight hauler is the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail). Some 51 percent of the tonnage of goods hauled by rail and originating in the state were nonmetallic minerals in 2004, and another 37 percent was waste and scrap. In 2004 the state had 874 km (543 mi) of railroad track.

Airports

The state’s major airport, Bradley International Airport, is located near the town of Windsor Locks, north of Hartford. In 2007 there were 6 airports scattered throughout Connecticut, many of them private airfields.

Waterways

The Connecticut River was once a major trade route but is little used today, except by pleasure boats and small barges transporting oil and gasoline to Hartford. Connecticut is linked with Long Island by ferry service from Bridgeport.

Trade

A large part of Connecticut’s wholesale and retail trade is domestic, for Connecticut is advantageously located in a densely populated region that constitutes one of the richest consumer and industrial markets in the United States. Connecticut’s major seaports are New Haven, Bridgeport, and New London. These three ports handle the bulk of Connecticut’s foreign trade. Exports shipped from Connecticut include motors and aerospace vehicles and parts, industrial machinery, fabricated metals, instruments, chemicals, cutlery, tools, and hardware. Among the bulky raw materials imported by the state are limestone; lumber; manganese, chromium, copper, and cobalt ores; and iron and steel and other metals.

THE PEOPLE OF CONNECTICUT

Population Patterns

According to the 2000 national census, Connecticut ranked 29th among the states, with a total population of 3,405,565. The 2000 total was 3.6 percent larger than the 1990 total of 3,502,309. The average density in 2006 was 279 persons per sq km (723 per sq mi), making Connecticut the fourth most densely populated state.

Connecticut has been a predominantly urban state ever since the end of the 19th century. At all of the censuses beginning in 1950 more than three-quarters of the population has been classified as urban, and in 2000 some 88 percent of the people were so counted.

Almost all of the first European settlers in Connecticut, those who came during the 17th and 18th centuries, were of English origin. Irish, who supplied much of the growing demand for labor in the state’s early stages of industrialization, were the first large foreign-born group to arrive after the American Revolution. Italians began to settle in Connecticut and came in great numbers between 1900 and 1916. Between 1880 and 1919 many new immigrants came to Connecticut from Germany and Russia. Other major sources of immigrants were Québec and other parts of Canada, Poland, Lithuania, and Czechoslovakia. In 1910 about 30 percent of Connecticut’s total population was foreign-born. By 1970, however, the foreign-born proportion had fallen to only 9 percent. In the early 1990s the countries from which most immigrants were arriving were Poland, China, countries of the former Soviet Union, and India.

Whites constitute the largest ethnic group, with 81.6 percent of the population at the time of the 2000 census. Blacks were 9.1 percent of the people, Asians 2.4 percent, Native Americans 0.3 percent, and those of mixed heritage or not reporting race 6.5 percent. Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders numbered 1,366. Hispanics, who may be of any race, were 9 percent of the people. The blacks and Puerto Ricans in the state are almost all urban. Hartford, New Haven, and Bridgeport have the largest black populations. In 2000 Hartford was 38 percent black, New Haven was 37 percent black, and Bridgeport was 31 percent black.

Principal Cities

The largest cities in Connecticut are Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven, Stamford, and Waterbury. Bridgeport had a population in 2006 of 137,912 in the city and 900,440 in the metropolitan area in 2006. Hartford, the state capital, had a population of 124,512 in the city and 1,188,841 in the metropolitan area. New Haven had a population of 124,001 in the city and 845,244 in the metropolitan area. Stamford had 119,261 people, while Waterbury had 107,251 inhabitants in 2006. Other major cities are Norwalk, New Britain, and Danbury.

Religion

The Roman Catholic Church accounts for about one-half of all the church members in the state. Of the Protestant denominations the Baptists are most numerous, followed by the Episcopalians, and Methodists. Many Orthodox Christians live in the state. There are large Jewish communities in most of the state’s major cities.

Congregationalism was established by law as the official religion of the Connecticut and New Haven colonies when the colonies were founded in the 17th century. It remained the official religion until the 1818 constitution was adopted. The congregation of each church was its own governing body, and there was nearly complete independence of all outside ecclesiastical control. After 1708 the churches lost their form of self-government and were placed under the administration of the various counties.

EDUCATION AND CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS

Education

The early settlers quickly established schools. A free school was opened in New Haven in 1641, and a similar school was established in Hartford two years later. In 1650 a law was passed requiring every township in Connecticut with 50 or more families to appoint a town resident to teach children to read and write. Every town of 100 or more families was required to establish a grammar (or high) school.

Connecticut has many nationally prominent private preparatory schools. The oldest such private school still in existence in the state is the Hopkins School, which was founded in New Haven in 1660. Another school more than a century old is the Gunnery, which is located in Washington. Of more recent origin are Choate Rosemary Hall, in Wallingford; the Hotchkiss School, in Lakeville; and the Pomfret School, in Pomfret. There are also many parochial preparatory schools.

School attendance in Connecticut is compulsory from ages 5 through 18. Some 13 percent of the state’s children attend private schools. In the 2002–2003 school year Connecticut spent $12,653 on each student’s education, compared to a national average of $9,299. There were 13.6 students for every teacher (the average class size for the country was 15.9 students). Of those older than 25 years of age in the state, 88 percent had a high school diploma, while the nation as a whole averaged 84.1 percent.

Higher Education

In 1701 the Collegiate School, what later was to become Yale University, one of the foremost educational institutions in the United States, was founded in Branford. Yale was opened in Killingworth (now Clinton) in 1702, and was later relocated to Saybrook (now Old Saybrook) and to Milford before finally being moved to New Haven, its present location, in 1716. Other noted schools are the University of Connecticut, in Storrs, founded as Storrs Agricultural School; Trinity College, in Hartford, founded as Washington College; the University of Hartford; the University of Bridgeport; Connecticut College and the United States Coast Guard Academy, both in New London; Wesleyan University, in Middletown; and Quinnipiac University, in Hamden. In 2004–2005 Connecticut had 22 public and 13 private institutions of higher education.

Libraries

Connecticut’s first public library was established in Durham in 1733. The state has 194 tax-supported library systems. Each year the libraries circulate an average of 8.9 books for every resident. Important library collections are maintained at the Yale University Library, the Connecticut State Library in Hartford, and the libraries of Trinity College, Wesleyan University, and the University of Connecticut.

Museums

The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, in Hartford, is considered one of the finest art museums in the United States. Other art museums in Connecticut are the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, in New London; the Slater Museum, at the Norwich Free Academy in Norwich; the Yale University Art Gallery, in New Haven; and the New Britain Museum of American Art, in New Britain. The Hill-Stead Museum, in Farmington, has a major art collection, and there are special historical art collections in Hartford, Waterbury, and many other cities. Among the other outstanding museums in Connecticut are Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History and the Yale Center for British Art. The Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, opened in 1998 in Mashantucket, includes innovative interpretive displays and re-creations that depict the cultural heritage of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation.

Communications

In 2002 there were 19 daily newspapers published in Connecticut. In 1755 the Connecticut Gazette, the colony’s first newspaper, was printed by James Parker at New Haven. The Hartford Courant, the oldest American newspaper, has been published continuously since it was started in 1764 by Thomas Green. Influential dailies, in addition to the Courant, included the New Haven Register; the Herald, published in New Britain; the Day, published in New London; the News-Times, published in Danbury; the Connecticut Post, published in Bridgeport; the Norwich Bulletin; and the Waterbury Republican-American.

Connecticut’s first radio station was WDRC, which began broadcasting in Hartford in 1922. The first television station in the state was WNHC, which was established in New Haven in 1948. In 2002 there were 29 AM and 48 FM radio stations and 13 television stations in operation in Connecticut.

Music and Theater

Hartford, New Haven, and other cities maintain symphony orchestras, and there are choral groups in many cities. The school of music at Yale University is a leader in American musical education.

There is a great interest in the theater in Connecticut. The Goodspeed Opera House, in East Haddam, puts on several productions a year. Austin Arts Center at Trinity College features plays and musicals annually. The Long Wharf Theatre and the Yale Repertory Theatre, both in New Haven, are nationally known. Some 3,000 productions have had their world or American premieres at the Shubert Theater in New Haven, also known as the Shubert Performing Arts Center. Performances such as South Pacific, Oklahoma, and A Streetcar Named Desire opened at the Shubert before being staged for Broadway audiences. The theater continues to be a center for the region’s cultural life, hosting first-run Broadway shows, opera, dance, family entertainment, and cabaret attractions.

RECREATION AND PLACES OF INTEREST

Connecticut has numerous recreational facilities. Swimming, boating, and other water sports are popular along the coastal beaches and at lakes. Facilities for hiking, camping, and other activities are provided in a statewide system of public parks and forests, and skiing and other winter sports are popular. The Connecticut Forest and Park Association, a private organization, maintains miles of hiking trails.

National Sites

American Impressionist painter J. Alden Weir summered at what is now Weir Farm National Historic Site. The 24-hectare (60-acre) park includes Weir’s home, studio, barns and outbuildings, a visitor center, and a second studio built by sculptor Mahonri Young. The Appalachian National Scenic Trail traverses the northwest corner of the state.

State Parks and Forests

There are 91 state parks in Connecticut as well as dozens of parks and historical sites maintained by municipalities. While not all of the state’s parks are developed, there are recreational facilities in every region. Hammonasset Beach State Park is the largest of the parks that border the shore of Long Island Sound. On a clear day, a person can see four states from Heublein Tower at Talcott Mountain State Park in the heart of the Farmington River Valley. Fort Griswold Battlefield State Park preserves the site where in 1781 British troops massacred American troops. A stair pathway adjacent the Kent Falls makes this state park a popular picnic site. Dinosaur tracks about 185 million years old are housed under a giant geodesic dome at the Dinosaur State Park, in Rocky Hill. Pine Knob Loop Trail at Housatonic Meadows State Park joins the Appalachian National Scenic Trail.

Most of the 30 state forests do not permit camping but almost all are open for fishing, hiking, and other daytime activities.

Other Places to Visit

Connecticut has many places of historical interest. At Webb House, at the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum in Wethersfield, George Washington met with the French General Jean Baptiste de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau during the American Revolution to plan the strategy that led to the Yorktown campaign. At Lebanon is the Revolutionary War Office, where Governor Jonathan Trumbull conferred with Washington, Benjamin Franklin, the Marquis de Lafayette, and other leaders. The Fundamental Orders and one of the two original copies of the 1662 charter are on display at the Connecticut State Library in Hartford. Mystic Seaport, a re-created village, features a restored seaport street of the early 19th century and the last of the old-time whaling ships. Other places of historic interest in Connecticut include Keeler Tavern, in Ridgefield, where a British cannonball fired during the revolution is embedded in the wall; the Old State House in Hartford, where Connecticut’s early legislature met; the Tapping-Reeve House and Law School, in Litchfield, where America’s first law school was founded in 1773; and Old New-Gate Prison, a prison dating from the revolution, in East Granby.

Annual Events

A number of cultural festivals are held in all parts of Connecticut during the summer and fall. Mystic Seaport celebrates annually at the Antique and Classic Boat Rendezvous, held in July, featuring a gathering of pre-1950s wooden sail and motor boats. Connecticut does not hold a state fair but participates in the Eastern States Exposition, or the Big E, a gathering of entertainment, exhibits, and shows from the six New England states held in September in West Springfield, Massachusetts. Not as big but certainly older is the Brooklyn Fair, in existence since the 1850s and the oldest continuously active agricultural fair, which is held each August and is highlighted by ox and horse pulls. Other sizable agricultural fairs are held in Durham and Goshen. Bagpipe playing, drumming, and dancing competitions are features at the Connecticut Scottish Festival, held in Goshen in October. Connecticut also hosts many outdoor crafts shows, the largest held in the fall in Berlin. Lebanon celebrates the founding of the Revolutionary War Office at its annual Lebanon Pilgrimage and Camporee. Other annual events include the Yale-Harvard Regatta at New London, and the Barnum Festival at Bridgeport.

VII

GOVERNMENT

The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, a set of laws drawn up by the people of Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield in 1639, served as the colony’s first constitution. In 1662 Connecticut received a royal charter. In 1818 the state adopted a new constitution. The state’s present constitution was adopted in 1965. To become a law, a proposed constitutional amendment must receive at least a three-fourths majority vote in both houses of the state legislature or be approved by a majority in both houses in two consecutive legislative sessions and must be approved by a majority of voters.

Executive

The executive branch of the state government is headed by a governor, who is elected for a term of four years. The governor appoints most state department heads and commissioners and also nominates judges for the higher courts of the state. Other members of the executive branch are the lieutenant governor, secretary of the state, treasurer, comptroller, and attorney general, who are elected for four-year terms.

Legislative

The General Assembly, as the state legislature is called, consists of a 36-member Senate and a 151-member House of Representatives. Members of both houses are elected for two-year terms. The General Assembly meets in Hartford every year. It may also be convened in special session, which may be called by the governor or a majority of each chamber of the assembly.

Judicial

The highest court in the state is the supreme court, which is solely a court of appeal. A chief justice and six associate justices, who are appointed for eight-year terms, sit on the supreme court. The state’s trial court is the superior court, to which judges are appointed for eight-year terms. Under a 1976 law, the common pleas and juvenile courts were merged into the superior court.

Local Government

Connecticut’s local government units are called towns, although, as in New England generally, they are quite similar to townships elsewhere in the nation and may include several incorporated and unincorporated communities. The towns have different forms of local government. Most of the small towns are governed by selectmen, elected by the towns’ voters, who assemble annually to act on town affairs; the first selectman is the chief administrative officer. Some of the larger towns and cities have adopted the council and town or city manager form of administration. Other large towns and cities are governed by mayors and councils or boards of aldermen.

The principle of home rule is very strong in Connecticut towns with each community tightly controlling land use, education, and police. This has led to a resistance to regional government, particularly since the abolishment of county government in 1960. The eight counties are still recognized as geographical divisions of the state by the federal government and the state court system.

National Representation

Connecticut elects two U.S. senators and five members of the U.S. House of Representatives. In presidential elections the state has seven electoral votes.

VIII

HISTORY

Early Inhabitants

At the beginning of the 17th century, Connecticut was the home of a number of different Native American groups, all of whom spoke related Algonquian languages. Archaeological sites indicate these people lived largely by hunting deer, catching fish and shellfish, and growing corn, beans, and squash. They migrated from forest to coastal areas to take advantage of seasonal resources. The total native population is estimated at about 7,000 people in the early 1600s, after an epidemic that decimated Native Americans throughout New England.

Most powerful among the Connecticut people were the Pequot, who lived in the east and along the shore of Long Island Sound, an area they had conquered from other native groups at the end of the 1500s. Early in the 1600s, a number of Pequots split off from the main group. Led by a chief named Uncas, they called themselves Mohegan, and controlled an area near the Thames River.

Other native groups were the Nipmuc in the northeastern sections of Connecticut; the Niantic along the eastern coast; and the Hammonasset, Quinnipiac, Paugussett, Siwanoy, Podunk, Poquonock, Massacoe, and Tunxi in the central and western sections.

Early Settlement

The Dutch were the first Europeans to settle in Connecticut. In 1614 the Dutch mariner Adriaen Block explored the southern shore of Long Island Sound and sailed up the Connecticut River, possibly as far as the Enfield rapids, north of present-day Hartford. Later the Dutch acquired land at the mouth of the Connecticut River and carried on a prosperous trade in furs with the native inhabitants.

Early in the 1630s, the fertile river valley began to attract the attention of English settlers from the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies in Massachusetts. In 1633 colonists from Plymouth built a trading post and stockade near the site of present-day Windsor. That same year the Dutch, anxious to protect their claim to the region, erected their first and only fort in Connecticut, at Hartford.

In 1634 and 1635 colonists from Massachusetts Bay founded the towns that formed the core of the Connecticut colony. English trader John Oldham brought a large party from Watertown to settle at Wethersfield. John Winthrop the younger, son of the Massachusetts governor, established Saybrook at the mouth of the Connecticut River. Named after Lord Saye and Sele and Lord Brooke, two of the colony’s founders, it is part of the present-day towns of Deep River and Old Saybrook. Roger Ludlow led colonists from Dorchester, Massachusetts, to establish their own settlement at Windsor. The largest migration occurred in 1636, when a well-known minister, Thomas Hooker, led about 100 colonists from Newtown (now Cambridge, Massachusetts) to settle at Hartford. Within a few years the English-speaking colonists in Windsor, Wethersfield, Saybrook, and Hartford greatly outnumbered the Dutch.

Most of the Native Americans were generally friendly to the colonists. Some native groups invited the English to settle nearby, hoping for trade and for allies against the aggressive Pequots, who dominated the area. Settlers purchased land from the native people, and though whites often encroached on native territory, disputes were usually settled without violence.

The exception to these friendly relations was friction between the Pequots and settlers, which soon escalated into New England’s first major war, the Pequot War of 1637. The causes of the war are unclear, but it involved a series of killings, raids and reprisals on both sides. In May 1637 Connecticut declared war on the Pequots. With the help of both the Mohegan and the Narragansett to the east, the colonists launched a surprise attack on a Pequot village at Mystic River. They set the village on fire and killed Pequot inhabitants as they fled the flames. Hundreds of native villagers died, including many women and children, and most of the remaining Pequots were killed or captured. The few who survived were scattered throughout New England or sold into slavery, and the Pequot all but disappeared.

In 1638 and 1639, representatives of Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield, the three principal settlements in the Connecticut River valley, met at Hartford to discuss plans to unite the settlements into a single colony. On January 14, 1639, the colony of Connecticut was formed, and the colonists formally adopted a basic set of laws known as the Fundamental Orders. That document, said to be the first written constitution in history, was a milestone in early American constitutional history. Framed by Hooker, Ludlow, John Haynes, and others, the laws provided for a self-governing colony whose inhabitants were to owe their allegiance to the colony rather than to England. Two general assemblies, one legislative and the other judicial, were set up, and representatives were chosen from each town. Haynes, former governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was chosen as the first governor of the Connecticut colony.

Meanwhile, in 1638, merchant Theophilus Eaton and Puritan minister John Davenport established a trading colony on the former Pequot lands near the site of present-day New Haven. First called Quinnipiac, it was renamed New Haven in 1640. Later settlements at Milford, Stamford, Guilford, Branford, and Southold (on Long Island) joined New Haven to form the New Haven colony. The laws adopted by the New Haven colony were less liberal than the Fundamental Orders of the Connecticut colony. Only members of the Puritan church could vote, and strict laws regulated the religious and moral life of the colonists.

The two colonies remained separate except for a brief period in 1643, when New Haven and Connecticut joined with the Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth colonies in a mutual defense pact called the New England Confederation. Both colonies in Connecticut acquired additional settlements, and in 1644 the Connecticut colony purchased the Saybrook colony.

The colonies were never self-sufficient economic units, and engaged in trade from the beginning. The colonists raised grain, especially corn, vegetables, and other crops for their own use, and also kept a few animals. The land in the Connecticut River valley was especially productive and soon provided the colonists with surplus crops and livestock to trade with other settlements on the eastern seaboard. The forests provided wood for fuel and construction, as well as furs, trapped and traded by the Native Americans.

Colonial Period

Until 1662 the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven were not recognized in England as legally established colonies. A deed, known as the Warwick Patent, had been given to the founders of Saybrook by the earl of Warwick in 1632, and it was presumably transferred to Connecticut when that colony purchased Saybrook. However, the legality of the grant was questionable. John Winthrop the younger, who had been elected governor of the Connecticut colony in 1657, sailed to England in 1661, and the following year he secured a royal charter from King Charles II. As set forth in the charter, the boundaries of the Connecticut colony extended from Massachusetts south to Long Island Sound and from Narragansett Bay west to the Pacific Ocean. The charter thus ignored the separate existence of New Haven. The New Haven colonists protested their incorporation into Connecticut. However, they agreed to the merger in 1664 in response to the possibility that New Haven, a Puritan colony, might be included in the area granted to the Duke of York; the Church of England was the official religion in that area. Early in 1665 the two Puritan colonies of New Haven and Connecticut were formally merged.

Under the royal charter of 1662, Connecticut retained much of its previous autonomy. The charter incorporated the essential features of the Fundamental Orders, and local government was conducted as before with little interference from the English crown or from Parliament. However, after Charles II died, his successor, James II, attempted to consolidate New England under the administration of Sir Edmund Andros. When Andros arrived in Hartford in 1687 to demand the surrender of Connecticut’s charter, the document mysteriously disappeared. According to tradition it was hidden by the colonists in the hollow of a large oak tree that came to be known as the Charter Oak. Although Andros failed to secure the charter, he ruled Connecticut as a part of New England until 1688, when James II was overthrown. In 1689 Andros was arrested, and colonial self-government was reinstated.

As in the rest of New England, religious matters played a major role in the Puritan society of colonial Connecticut. Although membership in the Congregational Church was not a requirement to vote, all residents were taxed to support the church. By the end of the 17th century, religious disputes among Puritans over church government and congregational autonomy threatened the unity of the colony. To settle the dispute, the legislature summoned delegates to a religious convention at Saybrook in 1708. A compromise solution known as the Saybrook Platform was adopted. It established a single confession of faith, or set of beliefs, as the official religion of the colony, but gave individual congregations substantial autonomy in other matters.

Connecticut suffered little damage in King Philip’s War (1675-1676), the last major resistance by Native Americans to white settlement of southern New England. Most of Connecticut’s tribes remained neutral or aided the colonists when the Wampanoag chief Philip led an alliance of native peoples against the Massachusetts colonies in retaliation for encroachments on native lands. Connecticut troops joined in attacks on the Narragansett in neighboring Rhode Island, killing hundreds when the neutral Narragansett refused to give up Wampanoag refugees.

From the late 1680s until 1763, as Great Britain and France fought for control of North America, Connecticut supplied troops and money but faced little direct threat from the French and their Native American allies.

American Revolution

The citizens of Connecticut took an active part in the events leading up to the American Revolution (1775-1783). In 1765 the colony sent delegates to the intercolonial assembly that met in New York City to demand that Parliament repeal the Stamp Act, which required all legal documents, newspapers, and pamphlets to carry a British tax stamp. The colony was also represented at the first Continental Congress in 1774. Two years later, Connecticut legislator and judge Roger Sherman helped draft the Declaration of Independence. Sherman and the other Connecticut delegates, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, and Oliver Wolcott, signed the declaration on behalf of the colony, an action endorsed by the vast majority of the colonists, including Governor Jonathan Trumbull. Reelected annually from 1769 to 1784, Trumbull was the only colonial governor to be retained in office after the outbreak of the revolution.

Except for isolated skirmishes with British troops at Stonington, Danbury, New Haven, and New London, little fighting occurred on Connecticut soil. But Connecticut troops contributed disproportionately to the American cause, and participated in almost every major battle of the revolution. Ethan Allen, Israel Putnam, and Nathan Hale, three heroes of the revolution, were originally from Connecticut, as was Benedict Arnold, the war hero turned traitor, who joined the British in 1779. During the war Connecticut became known as the Provisions State because it supplied food, arms, and ammunition to the Continental Army.

After the Revolution

Connecticut was one of the original 13 states of the United States. Sherman, Oliver Ellsworth, and William Samuel Johnson served as Connecticut’s delegates to the Constitutional Convention, which met in Philadelphia in 1787. When the states became deadlocked on the issue of national representation in Congress, Connecticut’s delegation introduced a plan that came to be known as the Connecticut, or Great, Compromise. It established the present form of the Congress of the United States: a lower house in which the states are represented on the basis of population and an upper house in which they are represented equally. On January 9, 1788, Connecticut became the fifth state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.

In 1786 Connecticut ceded to the U.S. government most of the western territory that it held, at least on paper, under the charter of 1662. The state retained only the Western Reserve, a strip of land on the south shore of Lake Erie in what is now Ohio. In 1792 part of the Western Reserve was given to Connecticut citizens as compensation for buildings burned by British raiding parties during the revolution. The remainder was sold in 1795 for $1.2 million, with the proceeds set aside for education.

In 1790 Connecticut had a total population of 237,946, or about 6 percent of the total population of the United States at that time. The state grew slowly in the next few decades, partly because many Connecticut residents emigrated to areas being settled in northern New England, New York, and Ohio.

Connecticut and Early U.S. Politics

At the beginning of the 19th century, Connecticut was a politically conservative state and a stronghold of the Federalist Party, which was led by wealthy commercial interests and sought a stronger central government. Connecticut strongly opposed the election of Thomas Jefferson as president in 1800 because Jefferson led the Republican forces opposing the Federalists and advocating individual and states’ rights.

Connecticut and the rest of New England had developed a prosperous maritime trade by 1800. But trade declined sharply after Jefferson initiated the Embargo Act of 1807, which prohibited U.S. vessels from trading with European nations. The law was an attempt to get France and Britain, which were at war, to respect U.S. neutrality, but it succeeded only in causing economic hardship and widespread discontent among Americans, especially among merchants and sailors in places such as Connecticut. When the United States and Britain went to war over neutrality issues in the War of 1812, Connecticut refused to furnish troops for national service. At the Hartford Convention in 1814, Connecticut Federalists and delegates from other New England states secretly discussed their common grievances against the federal government. Rumors spread that the states were considering seceding from the Union. The war ended soon after the convention, and no secession action was taken, but the Federalist Party was generally discredited and lost control of Connecticut.

In 1816 the Republicans in Connecticut united with religious minorities, especially Baptists and Anglicans, to challenge the influence of the Congregational Church and seek reform. They formed the Toleration Party, whose candidate, Oliver Wolcott, Jr., was elected governor in 1817. The next year a new constitution was adopted to replace the charter of 1662. Under the 1818 constitution, church and state were separated for the first time in Connecticut, with all religions given equal status. In addition, the power of the governor was expanded, courts were made more independent by giving judges lifetime appointments, and voting laws were made more liberal.

Development of Industry

Manufacturing had flourished on a small scale in Connecticut since early colonial times. It became increasingly important after Congress passed the Revenue Act in 1792, which authorized high tariffs on imported manufactured goods and encouraged the development of industry in the United States. In 1788 the first woolen mills in New England were established at Hartford, and soon after, cotton mills were built in Manchester, Vernon, Pomfret, and Jewett City. Inventor Eli Whitney began manufacturing his cotton gins, which revolutionized the economy of the South, at New Haven in 1793. In 1798 he helped develop the modern system of mass production, using interchangeable parts to manufacture firearms at Hamden, near New Haven. Inventor Eli Terry began producing machine-made clocks in the 1790s at Plymouth. In 1839 Charles Goodyear of Naugatuck discovered a process called vulcanization that made natural rubber stronger, more elastic and resistant to temperature change—a discovery that revolutionized the rubber goods industry.

When foreign trade was cut off during the War of 1812, many New England shippers and traders invested their idle capital in manufacturing. Yankee peddlers developed a market for Connecticut products. They traveled as far as the South and Midwest selling buttons, pins, needles, hats, combs, tinware, brassware, clocks, rifles, tableware, and other items. Railroads and canals encouraged large-scale industry. The Civil War (1861-1865), with its heavy demand for weapons, munitions and textiles, further stimulated the state’s industrial output. Thousands of European immigrants arrived, providing relatively inexpensive labor for Connecticut’s factories and mills. By the end of the 19th century, Connecticut was predominantly industrial and famous for a variety of products: Colt and Winchester firearms, International silverware, Seth Thomas clocks, Hitchcock chairs, Stanley tools, Royal typewriters, Scovill brass, and a wide range of precision metal goods.

Beginning in 1784, Connecticut had gradually abolished slavery, and during the Civil War, Connecticut strongly supported the Union. The Republican Party, which began as an antislavery party, dominated state politics from the end of the war until 1930.

20th Century

By the first decades of the 20th century, Connecticut was becoming primarily an urban, immigrant state, while the system for electing legislators still gave rural areas more power than city dwellers. Once overwhelmingly Protestant, the population was swelled by newcomers from Ireland, Italy, as well as from Poland and other Eastern European countries, who made Roman Catholicism the largest religious denomination. A number of Jewish immigrants also settled in Connecticut. By 1910 about 30 percent of the population was foreign-born.

As with the Civil War, World War I (1914-1918) stimulated Connecticut industry, especially in munitions. After the war ended the state remained prosperous until the Great Depression, the economic hard times of the 1930s. Important industries were machine tools, consumer goods, and financial services—especially insurance, which was centered in Hartford. During the Depression rising unemployment, coupled with alienation from the Republican business establishment, brought Democrats into power. Led by a Yale University professor of English, Governor Wilbur L. Cross (1931-1939), the state introduced public works programs to provide jobs and passed laws to establish a minimum wage, unemployment compensation, and protection against job discrimination. Democrats also improved state colleges, hospitals, and prisons, and tightened regulation of business.

In 1938, however, a municipal corruption scandal helped the Republican Party return to power, with the election of Governor Raymond E. Baldwin. Since that time, Connecticut has remained a competitive, two-party state.

World War II (1939-1945) restored Connecticut prosperity as new military products, such as Pratt and Whitney airplane engines, Hamilton Standard propellers, Cheney silk parachutes, and Electric Boat submarines, joined old ones such as ships, artillery, guns, munitions, and uniforms. When the war ended, these high-wage union jobs were cut back, but production increased again during the Cold War, the diplomatic and economic struggle between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) that followed World War II. Connecticut became the first producer of nuclear-powered submarines and a major supplier of Sikorsky military helicopters. By 1960 Connecticut was one of the nation’s richest states, based on income per person.

From the 1950s through the 1980s Connecticut thrived, except for short downturns during national recessions. Many major corporations, such as General Electric, American Brands, and Union Carbide, moved their headquarters to the state’s southwest corner near New York City. The economic boom, fueled by defense spending and financial services industries, made Connecticut a mostly middle-class, suburban state, with scattered, undeveloped rural pockets located away from its cities and interstate highways.

However, Connecticut’s growing population of blacks and Hispanics did not share in the prosperity. As whites left for the suburbs, Connecticut’s cities became increasingly poor and segregated. In the 1960s, militant black and student activists pushed for reforms, as the state made efforts to rebuild urban neighborhoods and desegregate school systems. Race riots occurred in major cities during the summers from 1967 to 1969.

A 1964 ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States forced Connecticut to reapportion its legislature and adopt a new constitution to comply with the principle of “one person, one vote.” This constitution finally broke the dominance of the legislature by more rural areas at the expense of cities.

In 1974 Ella T. Grasso was elected governor of Connecticut, becoming the state’s first female chief executive and the first woman in the United States elected governor in her own right, rather than as succeeding her husband.

At the end of the 1980s, cutbacks in defense spending, coupled with major changes in American business and a national recession, put an end to Connecticut’s 50-year economic boom. In the first half of the 1990s Connecticut lost population, as young people left in search of jobs and retirees moved to warmer climates where taxes were lower. The state lost more than 125,000 manufacturing jobs; the famous Colt firearms company entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and defense-related companies such as United Technologies and the Electric Boat Shipyard laid off thousands of workers. To balance the budget, the state was forced to impose a tax on earned income for the first time in 1991.

However, the 1990s saw progress for some of Connecticut’s Native American people. In 1983 one of two surviving groups of Pequot, the Mashantucket Pequots of Ledyard, gained federal recognition and settled a land claim. The group, with 200 to 300 members, opened a gambling casino on their reservation in 1992, and their large profits made them an economic force in the area. Revenue from the casino paid for many improvements on the reservation as well as the construction of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center. The Mohegan won federal recognition in 1994 and also operated a successful casino near Uncasville.

In the mid-1990s Connecticut led the nation in per capita wealth, but its three largest cities—Bridgeport, Hartford, and New Haven—were among the nation’s poorest. Housing and school segregation continued for black and Hispanic residents, as Connecticut, like much of the United States, grappled with stark economic, racial, and ethnic division.

The history section of this article was contributed by Richard D. Brown. The remainder of the article was contributed by John E. Harmon.

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Friday 10 January 2014

Connecticut

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