Carter’s Inn sign

Attributed to Solomon Jones & Thomas K. Bush, Carter’s Inn sign, Clinton, ca. 1823 – Connecticut Museum of Culture and History. Used through Public Domain.

How did the people of Connecticut’s past live their daily lives? What did they cook and eat, wear and own, gossip about, celebrate, and mourn? Such details are the concerns of social history and reveal much about the economic conditions, class disparities, shared values, and other characteristics of a given time. Joshua Hempstead’s diary, for example, provides a detailed account of life in colonial Connecticut, as experienced by an Anglo-American businessman and public servant. James Mars’ memoir, on the other hand, traces the path from slavery to freedom under the state’s Gradual Emancipation Act of 1784. Personal accounts, along with photographs, artifacts, songs, and other historical evidence, help bring the experience of the everyday to light.

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Broadside announcing changes to Mansfield's Poor-House

Connecticut Poor Law Aimed to Care for the Needy

Connecticut instituted a Poor Law in the 17th century to comply with a directive from the British government that the colony ensure for the care of the poor within its borders …[more]

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“Connecticut Museum of Culture and History.” https://www.connecticutmuseum.org/ (May 13, 2012).
“Database - Historical Hartford Courant (1764-1922).” 2016. researchITCT.org - Connecticut’s re-search engine. http://researchitct.org/newspapers/ (January 2, 2014).
“Grove Street Cemetery.” 2016. http://www.grovestreetcemetery.org/.
“Cedar Hill Cemetery.” 2016. http://www.cedarhillcemetery.org/history.
“The Museum of Connecticut History.” 2012. Connecticut State Library. http://museumofcthistory.org/ (March 12, 2012).
“History of Connecticut Newspapers.” 2013. Connecticut State Library. http://ctstatelibrary.org/access-services/history-of-ct-newspapers/ (October 29, 2013).
Connecticut Humanities Council, and Connecticut Public Television. 1998. African Americans in Connecticut the Civil War to Civil Rights. Hartford, CT: Connecticut Public Television.
Faude, Wilson H. 2010. Hidden History of Connecticut. Charleston, SC: History Press.
Hempstead, Joshua. 1901. Diary of Joshua Hempstead of New London, Connecticut, Covering a Period of Forty-Seven Years, from September 1711, to November, 1758. New London,  CT: The New London County Historical Society. http://www.archive.org/stream/diaryofjoshuahem1901hemp#page/n9/mode/2up.
Lehman, Eric D., and Amy Nawrocki. 2012. A History of Connecticut Food: A Proud Tradition of Puddings, Clambakes and Steamed Cheeseburgers. Charleston, SC: History Press.
Minor, Thomas, Sidney H. Miner, and George D. Stanton. 1899. The Diary of Thomas Minor, Stonington, Connecticut, 1653-1684. New London, CT: Day Publishing Company. http://archive.org/stream/cu31924028843245#page/n5/mode/2up.
Spears, John Randolph, and Oliver Wendell Holmes Collection. 1922. Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer: An Old-Time Sailor of the Sea. New York: Macmillan. http://archive.org/stream/captainnathaniel00spea#page/n5/mode/2up.
Shuldiner, David Philip, Thomas R. Beardsley, and Connecticut Humanities Council. 1996. Connecticut Speaks for Itself: Firsthand Accounts of Life in the Nutmeg State from Colonial Times to the Present Day. Middletown, CT: Connecticut Humanities Council.
Mars, James. 1868. “North American Slave Narratives - Life of James Mars, a Slave Born and Sold in Connecticut. Written by Himself.” Documenting the American South - University Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/mars/mars.html (February 28, 2012).
Main, Jackson Turner. 1985. Society and Economy in Colonial Connecticut. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Federal Writer’s Project for the State of Connecticut. 1938. Connecticut a Guide to Its Roads, Lore, and People. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Buel, Richard, J. Bard McNulty, and (first) Acorn Club of Connecticut. 1999. Connecticut Observed: Three Centuries of Visitors’ Impressions, 1676-1940. Hartford, CT: Connecticut Humanities Council.
Strong, Nehemiah. 1791. An Astronomical Diary, Kalendar, or Almanack, for the Year of Our Lord 1792 ... Calculated for the Meridian and Horizon of Hartford, Lat. 41 Deg. 56 Min. North: Longit. 72 Deg. 56 Min. West of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich: But May Serve Indifferently for All the Towns in Connecticut and the Adjacent States. Hartford: Nathaniel Patten. http://archive.org/stream/astronomicaldiar00stro#page/n1/mode/2up.