This Country of Ours, Chapter 29 (part 1)

Massachusetts  was a colony founded by aristocrats, people that were very well off who were used to ruling over others and having people under them obey.  They believed that a few people were meant to rule the many and the many were meant to obey.  One of these men was Governor Winthrop.  But one man, a minister named Thomas Hooker, disagreed with this and he and his congregation decided that they wanted to go and start their own settlement based on their views.  They had heard of adventurers who reported that the land of the Connecticut Valley was good land so they planned to move to that area.  The people of Boston did not like this idea at all for several reasons: 1) They didn't want to loose such an eloquent minister.  2) There was concern about Danes who had already settled that area. 3) The King had not given them permission to settle that land.

Nevertheless, they were resolved to go so Thomas Hooker and his congregation sent their furniture by boat and they began walking, with their families and their livestock, the hundreds of miles.  It took them a fortnight to travel this distance, partly because there were no roads or paths on their journey and partly because they traveled at a leisurely pace, allowing their livestock to graze freely along the way.  They named their new settlement Hartford.

After a time other groups of people settled the area, creating the towns of Wethersfield and Winthrop.  At first, they were still considered as part of the Massachusetts colony but before long they went about setting up a republic of their own and drew up their own set of rules that they would govern themselves by. One change they made is that they did away with religious tests so that a man did not have to be a member of any church to have the right to vote.  They did all this without mentioning the King or Governor in any of their writings.  They eventually became the colony of Connecticut.

*Year 4, Week 1

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