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This book is dedicated to the school children of the state by the Connecticut Society of the Colonial Dames of America
The Colonial Dames of Connecticut, under whose auspicesthis book is published, desire to express their indebtednessto Professor Charles M. Andrews, of Yale University, who generouslyoffered to supervise the work on its historical side. Theyalso gratefully acknowledge help from many friends in the preparationof the volume. Thanks are due to Mrs. Charles G. Morrisfor criticism of the manuscript and to Mr. George Dudley Seymour foradvice in the selection of the illustrations. Courtesies havebeen extended by the officials of the New Haven Free Public Library,of the Connecticut Historical Society, and of the Libraryof Yale University.
It is a pleasure to write a few words of introductionto thiscollection of stories dealing with the early historyofConnecticut, a state that can justly point with prideto a pastrich in features of life and government that havebeeninfluential in the making of the nation. Yetthe history of thecolony was not dramatic, for its people lived quietlives, littledisturbed by quarrels among themselves or by seriousdifficultieswith the world outside. The land was never thicklysettled; fewforeigners came into the colony; the towns were scatteredruralcommunities largely independent of each other; theinhabitants,belonging to much the same class, were neither veryrich nor verypoor, their activities were mainly agricultural,and their habitsof thought and ways of living were everywhere uniformthroughoutthe colonial period. The colony was in a measureisolated, notonly from England and English control, but also fromthe largecolonial centers such as Boston and New York, throughwhich itcommunicated with the older civilization. Connectionswith othercolonies were neither frequent nor important.Roads were poor,ferries dangerous, bridges few, and transportationeven from townto town was difficult and slow.
The importance of Connecticut lay in the men thatit nurtured andthe forms of government that it established and preserved.Fewinstitutions from the Old World had root in its soil.In theirtown meetings the people looked after local affairs;and mattersof larger import they managed by means of the generalassembly towhich the towns sent representatives. They made,their own laws,which they administered in their own courts.Their rules ofjustice, though sometimes peculiar, were the samefor all. Theydid what they could to educate their children, touphold goodmorals, to help the poor, and to increase the prosperityof thecolony. Though they could not entirely preventEngland frominterfering in their affairs, they succeeded in reducingherinterference to a minimum and were well content tobe let alone.Yet when called upon to furnish men in time of war,they did sogenerously and, in the main, promptly. Theybecame a vigorous,strong, determined community, and though unprogressiveinagriculture, they were enterprising in trade andcommerce, and inthe opening up of new opportunities prepared theway for thelater career of a progressive, highly organized manufacturingstate. To the larger colonial world they furnishedmen and ideasthat, during the period of revolution and constitution-making,played prominent parts in shaping the future of theUnited Statesof America.
If this little volume gives to the children of Connecticutatruer appreciation of the early history of the statein whichthey live, its purpose will have been achieved.A knowledge ofConnecticut’s history, its men and the workthey haveaccomplished, shou