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CONNECTICUT
was named Quinnehtukqut
by the Native Americans for the
"great tidal river" which
splits it in two before spilling out
into the Long Island Sound and washing
the old whaling ports of the coast. This
small and densely populated state is a
sort of conservative, high-rent suburb
of New York City, enabling commuters to
earn Big Apple salaries while avoiding
New York state and city taxes.
Connecticut's first white settlers
arrived in the 1630s: refugees from
Massachusetts seeking liberty, good farmland
and trading opportunities (not necessarily in
that order). The area soon became a center for
"Yankee ingenuity",
prospering through the invention and marketing
(often by the notorious and not always
honorable Yankee peddlers) of many a useful
little household object. Although hit very
badly by English raids in the Revolutionary
War, its role in providing the war effort with
crucial supplies made it known as "the provisions
state".
After the war, the original charter of
Connecticut's first colonists was used as a
model for the American Constitution and gave
rise to another nickname: "the Constitution
state". It continued to prosper
during the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries, with steady industrialization and
lucrative whaling along the southeastern
coast. Today, much of the old industry,
especially in the north, has withered away,
leaving areas of green countryside, untroubled
by noisy interstates, many verdant forests and
the idyllic rural villages that typify New
England's PR image – but also unemployment,
poverty, and a degree of displacement. New
Haven in particular, home to Yale
University, faces distinctly un-New England
problems like drug wars, homelessness and
violent crime.
The linchpins of Connecticut's economy –
insurance companies, medical research and
military bases – hardly make for pleasing
aesthetics, as demonstrated by the
interminably dull capital city, Hartford;
and even the historic and otherwise attractive
coastline is marred by some unlovely stretches
of sprawling gray concrete.
Click here to go to Connecticut
State Web site |
