Hartford, Connecticut's Capital

Résumé du livre

The genesis of Hartford is directly attributable to a problem -- bothersome but undramatic -- in Massachusetts. It was only about a decade after the Pilgrims' landing at Plymouth Rock, but the residents of Newtown (now Cambridge) were beginning to feel crowded in their little village on the Charles River. As a further irritant, theological differences were straining relations between one of Newtown's leaders, the Reverend Thomas Hooker, and the Reverend John Cotton of the Boston Church. A separation was inevitable. After the Massachusetts General Court granted the Newtown inhabitants permission "to seek out some more convenient place," they chose a site in the Connecticut River Valley, at a place the Indians called Sukiag. In 1635 the first handful of settlers arrived, and Hartford became the latest outpost of British civilization.