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History and Evolution:
By William E. Steinman:
Part 125, Colonies Three:
August 15, 2005:
Connecticut was one of the original 13 colonies. It was founded by immigrants from Massachusetts in 1635 and became a self governing colony. There were also other settlers, but the first to arrive in the middle Connecticut valley were from the Massachusetts Bay colony. Later, trading posts were set up by some New Amsterdam (New York) Dutch and Englishmen from Plymouth colony.
The government of the colony took the form of an agreement between the settlers called the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. This established a system wherein the towns of Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield, by agreement, established their own governments. They also created an annual meeting of legislators with an elected governor. That lasted until the royal charter of 1662 supplanted it and installed a self government of "propertied men of orthodox faith. This government worked well until several years after the revolution when a state constitution took its place.
Another of the first 13 colonies was Rhode Island. It was founded in 1636 as a self governing colony by Roger Williams under a charter granted by Charles II. Williams, a minister, and his followers were actually refugees from Massachusetts Bay colony from which they had been banished. Of course, it was all about religion. Williams was an advocate of what he called freedom of conscience. In 1638, another group of religious refugees from Boston settled in Portsmouth. These folks could not agree amongst themselves so they split up. One group stayed in Portsmouth lead by Anne Hutchinson. The others relocated to Newport under the leadership of William Coddington. That is not complicated enough yet. In 1643, another group lead by Samuel Gorton settled Warwick. Have you got it straight? That is four settlements of different dissidents and outcasts with four different views on religion.
Well, in 1643, Williams went to England and secured a royal patent for the colony. The problem was, it took several years for these four towns to agree on even a provisional government of a loose federation. That internal nit picking put them in a precarious position with respect to the rest of New England. By this time there was a New England Confederation or United Colonies of New England. It was a union for "mutual safety and welfare" formed by the British colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven. Rhode Island was not welcome into this federation and was constantly threatened with takeover from their neighbors.
That was not bad enough. Coddington managed to have himself made ruler for life of the island towns, thus splitting the colony between the mainland and the island towns. The upshot was, Williams and an island dissenter John Clarke went to England in 1651 and managed to get Coddington's commission rescinded. Then in 1654 they set up a reunited government. Clarke remained in England to continue his petitioning and, in 1663, won a royal charter. That became the basis of colonial and state government for 180 years.
A bit later in 1675 the United Colonies went to war against the Indian King Phillip. In this struggle, Rhode Island suffered a great deal of destruction even though they never joined the federation. All of the mainland settlements were burned. Most of the mainland settlers took refuge on Rhode Island, which was not attacked. The Great Swamp Fight, which broke the power of the Narraganset Indians, took place in December 1675 west of the present village of Kingston.
In commerce, Rhode Island did a bit better. They traded with the West Indies, selling horses, barrel staves, and salt fish. Eventually, some of the less scrupulous merchants worked what was called the triangular trade. They took rum to the African coast and traded it for slaves. They took the slave to Charleston, S.C., or to the West Indies, and traded them for molasses. Finally they brought the molasses back to Rhode Island, where it was distilled into rum. not too pretty, but there was great profit in al ports for those who could stomach the evil of it.
In 1764 the Sugar Act was passed by the British Parliament which put a big damper of this triangle trade. This law had the effect of causing the Rhode Islanders to begin smuggling sugar and molasses. With the British trying to stop the smuggling, it was bound to contribute further to the revolutionary fever. In 1772 a British ship Gaspee was patrolling Narragansett Bay looking for smugglers. They managed to run aground off Namquit Point. What an opportunity for the colonies. Sure enough, that night the ship was burned by a group of townsmen from Providence. This is generally considered to be the first act of violence against the British crown leading up to the American Revolution.
Just for the record, another small colony that was not one
of the13 was New Haven. It was settled in 1636 by Massachusetts
emigrants. These settlers were a group of Puritans led by john
Davenport and Theophilus Eaton, Originally it was named Quinnipiac
and later became New Haven. Later in 1665 it was merged into Connecticut.
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