Connecticut

Connecticutt; Conetticut

41.6000° N, 72.7000° W

Geo coordinates at https://www.google.com/#q=geographic+coordinates+of+Connecticut. "Colony of Connecticut." Brooks, Joanna. "This Indian World." The Collected Writings of Samson Occom, Mohegan. 2006. http://www.celebrateboston.com/history/connecticut.htm. Accessed 10/18/14. "Connecticut History Overview." http://colonialwarsct.org/introduction.htm. Accessed 10/18/14. Montagna, Joseph. "History of Connecticut Through 1690." Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1978/4/78.04.02.x.html. Surprenant, Donald. "Connecticut Constitutionalism, 1639-1789." Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1980/cthistory/80.ch.02.x.html#a.

Connecticut is a state in southern New England that borders Massachusetts to the north and the Long Island Sound to the south. Its name is derived from the Algonquian "Quonehtacut," meaning "long river," referring to the Connecticut, which runs from the border with Canada into the Long Island Sound. The area was originally inhabited by Algonquian-speaking Pequots, Mohegans, and Quinnipiacs. European settlers took advantage of tribal divisions to establish dominance in the region. Dutch explorer Adrian Block sailed up the Connecticut River in 1614, establishing an active Dutch trading post at what is now Hartford. English claims to Connecticut began in 1630, but settlement truly began when Thomas Hooker, a Congregationalist minister now known as "The Father of Connecticut," left Boston to found Hartford in 1636. Hartford became the center of the Colony of Connecticut, which did not receive its charter until 1662 when Governor John Winthrop, Jr. secured it from Charles II. In 1665, the Colony of New Haven, established in 1638 by the Puritan minister John Davenport, joined the Colony of Connecticut under this charter. Early settler relations with local Indians were tense, and encouraged the New England colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven to unify as the "United Colonies" or "New England Confederation" and fight together, with Indian allies, in the Pequot War and again in King Philip's (Metacom's) War. These wars helped establish a specifically Connecticut and specifically American identity; the latter drove the colony to join the rebellion against Britain in 1776. Occom, born into a Mohegan household in Connecticut, was closely associated with the Colony and retained strong ties to the region throughout his life. He converted to Christianity in 1743 when the Great Awakening spread through Connecticut, and inspired Wheelock's Indian Charity School, which was founded in Lebanon, CT in 1754. He also became involved in the Mason Land Case, a long-standing dispute over the ownership of reserve Mohegan lands in Connecticut. Wheelock also had strong ties to Connecticut, moving his Indian Charity School only when the colony would not grant it a charter.