9781422286180

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Southern New England: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island

tribe was broken. The early Puritan colonies in Massachusetts and Connecticut were theocracies, a form of government in which the religious leaders were also the political leaders. This changed in the Connecticut Colony with the arrival of Reverend Thomas Hooker. Hooker believed that men should have a voice in choosing their political lead- ers through elections. Under Hooker’s influence, the Connecticut Colony adopted a set of eleven rules called the Fundamental Orders. They gave colonists a greater voice in their gov- ernment.

Connecticut. Some settlers estab- lished towns inland in the Connecticut River Valley near present-day Hartford. They called their settlement the Connecticut Colony. Others established the New Haven Colony near the coast. At first, relations with the Algonquian tribes were peaceful, but that peace did not last. In 1637, an army of English settlers joined by war- riors from the Narragansett and Mohegan tribes attacked the Pequot. They set fire to a large Pequot village and killed about 700 people. From that point, the power of the Pequot

This map of England’s North American colonies, created around 1675, shows several settlements in the Connecticut region, including New Haven and Hartford (which is spelled Herford on the map).