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The Fundamental Orders

The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

The Fundamental Orders, inspired by Thomas Hooker’s sermon of May 31, 1638, provided the framework for the government of the Connecticut colony from 1639 to 1662.

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Elm Arcade, Temple Street, New Haven

A Beautiful and Goodly Tree: The Rise and Fall of the American Elm

Almost every Connecticut town has an Elm Street, named for the popular trees that grew in abundance until a fungal infestation greatly diminished their numbers.

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Windsor brickmakers

Building a Nation Brick by Brick

Brick making was an important industry in Windsor even in its colonial days.

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Detail from the map View of Windsor Locks, Conn. 1877

The Windsor Economy: A River Ran Through It

Windsor’s location on the Connecticut River shaped the area’s development dating back to its earliest recorded years.

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Picking Tobacco in the Connecticut River Valley

Literacy Tests and the Right To Vote

Connecticut was the first state to require a literacy test of would-be voters and, even as the practice came under fire as a tool of discrimination, the state held steady until 1970.

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Billings & Spencer Company

Christopher Miner Spencer, 19th-century Arms Manufacturer

Christopher Miner Spencer, from Manchester, obtained 42 patents during his lifetime and created the first successful breech-loading repeating rifle.

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Windsor’s “Murder Factory”

It only took 4 hours for a jury to convict Amy Duggan Archer Gilligan of operating, what the Hartford Courant labeled, a “murder factory.”

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Evelyn Beatrice Longman Commemorates the Working Class

September 27, 2021 • Hide Featured Image, Arts, Hartford, Windsor, Women, Work

“Industry,” also known as “The Craftsman,” by Evelyn Longman, resides in Hartford and is a celebration of the working class and their contribution to society.

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The Importance of Being Puritan: Church and State in Colonial Connecticut

Connecticut Protestants wanted to cleanse the church of what they saw as corruption, and to return to the simplicity and purity of early Christian worship.

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An English woodcut of a Witch

Alse Young Executed for Witchcraft – Today in History: May 26

On May 26, 1647, Alse Young of Windsor was the first person on record to be executed for witchcraft in the 13 colonies.

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20th-century photograph of shad nets

A Tale of Shad, the State Fish

The aquatic inhabitant, shad, has a long history of influencing foodways, income, and culture in the region.

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J. Frederick Kelly: Constructing Connecticut’s Architectural History

J. Frederick Kelly was both a well-known architect, preservationist, and architectural historian, whose works chronicled many of Connecticut’s historical properties.

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The Old State House, Hartford

Jackson v. Bulloch and the End of Slavery in Connecticut

Nancy Jackson sued for her freedom in 1837. Her victory helped further the abolitionist cause in a state slowly moving toward outlawing slavery.

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Laboring in the Shade

Thousands of Black Southern students, including a young Martin Luther King Jr., came north to work in Connecticut’s tobacco fields.

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Placard commemorating the adoption of the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut

The Fundamental Orders: Connecticut’s Role in Early Constitutional Government

The Fundamental Orders represent what many consider to be the first written constitution in the Western world.

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Ralph Earl, Oliver Wolcott

Oliver Wolcott Dies – Today in History: December 1

On December 1, 1797, signer of the Declaration of Independence Oliver Wolcott died while serving his term as Connecticut’s governor.

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Witchcraft in Connecticut

Well before the Salem trials, Connecticut residents were executing “witches.” Connecticut is home to what was most likely the first execution of its kind in colonial America.

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Pamphlet, 1692

Accidental Shooting Leads to Witchcraft Conviction – Today in History: October 3

October 3, 2020 • Crime and Punishment, Law, Windsor, Women

On October 3, 1651, Henry Stiles of Windsor was killed when the gun of Thomas Allyn, also of Windsor, accidentally discharged during a militia exercise.

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First Meetinghouse in Hartford

The Free Consent of the People: Thomas Hooker and the Fundamental Orders

Government formed with the consent of the people was a radical idea in the age of nations ruled by monarchs, emperors, and tsars.

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John Fitch's steamboat model

John Fitch Born – Today in History: January 21

On January 21, 1743, John Fitch, an inventor and pioneer in steamboat construction, was born in Windsor–a settlement in the British colony of Connecticut.

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Attributed to Osbert Burr Loomis, Nancy Toney, oil on canvas

Nancy Toney’s Lifetime in Slavery

January 19, 2020 • Slavery and Abolition, Windsor, Women

From scant evidence, including a portrait, gravestone, census data, and will, a partial image of a Connecticut life lived in slavery emerges.

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Tobacco barns in Windsor, Connecticut

Windsor Tobacco: Made in the Shade

By the mid-19th century, the “Tobacco Valley,” Springfield, Massachusetts to Hartford, Connecticut had become a center for cash-crop production.

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An Orderly & Decent Government: Making Self-Government Work, 1634-1776

In 1698 the General Court reorganized itself to deal more effectively with Connecticut’s complex new problems.

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An Orderly & Decent Government: Searching for the Common Good, 1634-1776

In the Great Awakening, impassioned evangelical ministers attracted crowds of thousands and the General Assembly promptly banned traveling preachers.

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Detail from a Map of the survey for a canal route for manufacturing purposes from the head of Enfield Falls to Hartford

Windsor Engineers Success

In recognition of the importance of the canal and the village in fostering local economic development, the area was given the name Windsor Locks in 1854.

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View in Batterson, Canfield & Co.'s Monumental Works

James G. Batterson, Stone Contractor

James G. Batterson was an artist, inventor, and businessman. He helped commemorate the Civil War through his proficiency with stone.

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Over Time: Windsor’s Historical Population

December 6, 2013 • Hide Featured Image, Windsor

Census data, from colonial times on up to the present, is a key resource for those who study the ways in which communities change with the passage of time.

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Map of Connecticut showing the settlements in 1670

Connecticut’s Oldest English Settlement

The original Windsor settlement contained not only the town of Windsor but also what eventually became the towns of Enfield, Suffield, Simsbury, and others.

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