Connecticut

CONNECTICUT

A colony established by no–nonsense Puritans and pushed forward by so–called "Yankee ingenuity," Connecticut has become an economic success story. Before the middle of the nineteenth century the state was well on its way to becoming an industrial powerhouse. Despite occasional downturns, changes in its population base, and fluctuations in its industrial character over a period of years, the state remains one the wealthiest in the United States.

Early Dutch settlers in Connecticut were dislodged by the large migration of English Puritans who came to the colony between 1630 and 1642. The Puritans established settlements all along the Connecticut River and formed a colony in 1639. After several years of friendly relations with the English, the situation deteriorated, and by 1770 the Native Americans of Connecticut had been largely driven out. Connecticut received legal recognition as a colony in 1662 and after it had a number of years of bitter border disputes with Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, and Pennsylvania. A relatively autonomous colony, Connecticut was a strong supporter of the American Revolution (1775–81). During the war Connecticut was known as the Provisions State because it supplied so much food to General George Washington's army. Connecticut ratified the new U.S. Constitution in 1788.

By the mid–nineteenth century Connecticut was unable to support itself through farming alone. Several important industries developed, including shipbuilding and whaling. In whaling ports the city of New London ranked behind only Nantucket and New Bedford in Massachusetts. The state has also led the insurance industry since the 1790s.

The inventiveness of early Connecticut manufacturers was a boon to the small state. Eli Whitney invented his famous cotton gin there and developed a system of interchangeable parts for rifles. Charles Goodyear developed a vulcanizing process for rubber, which later gave rise to the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. Linus Yale and his son created locks that still bear their name. Samuel Colt produced the rifles which had such an important effect on the winning of the American Civil War (1861–65), and Elias Howe invented the sewing machine. Clockmakers, like Eli Terry and Seth Thomas, made Connecticut a leader in clock and watch making.

Known as a conservative state, Connecticut was rather slow to develop railroads. They did not appear until the 1840s. After some opposition from turnpike and steamboat companies, the first railroad connected Hartford and New Haven, and later Northhampton, Massachusetts. By the 1850s a number of routes connected Hartford with other eastern Connecticut cities. The most important Connecticut railroad was the New York, New Haven, and Hartford.

This network of railroads, along with a healthy industrial base, made Connecticut an important contributor to the Union cause during the Civil War. A longtime antislavery state, Connecticut sent some 55,000 men to fight and provided large amounts of war materials. Gun manufacturers, such as Colt and Winchester, along with manufacturers of textiles, brass, and rubber, sent much–needed supplies to the war front. The war consolidated Connecticut's place as an industrially strong state. This development was made possible not only by the presence of railroads, but by abundant water power, sufficient capital from the many banks and insurance companies, and the technological and marketing skills of Connecticut's citizens.

Around the turn of the century Connecticut was an important producer of products like electrical fixtures, machine tools, hardware, hats, and typewriters. Connecticut produced $50 million in textiles (ranking it sixth in the nation in 1900), and it was soon putting out four–fifths of the U.S. supply of ammunition and one–fifth of its firearms (not including governmental production). In addition to the increased urbanization brought on by industry, population patterns began to change as well. By 1910 the foreign–born, attracted by the prospect of employment, made up 30 percent of the population. Most came from Ireland, Italy, Germany, and Austria.

During World War I (1914–18) Connecticut supplied not only men but also substantial monetary contributions and war materiel. Liberty Loan drives in the state netted $437 million, more than any other state collected. The firearms produced in Connecticut, among them Enfield and Browning rifles, were invaluable to the war effort. Other war–related products produced in the state included silk for parachutes, woven articles, and military hats.

Except for a brief recession just after the war, Connecticut's economy continued to boom in the 1920s. Factories churned out specialty parts for airplanes, automobiles, and the electric power industry. Hartford's Pratt and Whitney Company made the state a leader in the aviation industry, increasing the number of employees to over 2,000 by 1935. At the same time the textile industry in eastern Connecticut was declining, as more and more factories moved to the low–wage southern states.

The Great Depression of the 1930s brought hard times to the state, with thousands jobless and local and state governments struggling to find operating funds. In 1930 in Bridgeport, for example, 22,000 people applied for relief, and the city had to borrow $500,000 to pay for jobless benefits. This desperation led the state's voters to elect a Democratic governor for the first time in years. Connecticut then began to take advantage of the many federal work relief programs provided by the federal government under President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–45). According to historian David M. Roth, "Out of the misery of the Depression there came a progressive political tide such as had never been experienced in the state, a tide that enabled Connecticut not only to weather the Depression but to emerge as a far more liberal society than it had ever been before."

The renewed manufacturing activity brought by World War II (1939–45), however, was the real catalyst to economic revitalization. Defense contracts in Connecticut totaled $8 billion by 1945, and industrial employment increased by 200,000 between 1939 and 1944. Major products sent to the war front from Connecticut included submarines, Navy Corsair fighter aircraft, helicopters, ball bearings, and small arms.

After the war the state retained its economic health by diversifying its industrial base and relying more on the service industry. Urban problems began to plague the state in the 1950s as more and more middle–class whites fled to the suburbs, leaving ethnic minorities and the poor in the central part of cities like Hartford, New Haven, and Bridgeport. Housing in particular remained a problem in these areas. In addition, because Connecticut repeatedly rejected a state income tax, the state's taxes were among the highest in the nation.

During the 1980s, however, Connecticut boasted the highest per capita income in the United States, based largely on the expansion of defense contracts. This optimistic trend was threatened, however, when the Cold War began to defuse in the late 1980s, and manufacturing employment dropped by 25 percent. In 1991 defense–related contracts had dropped 37.7 percent from the year before. Pratt and Whitney and General Dynamics's Electric Boat Division announced major layoffs in 1992. Though service sector jobs increased by 23 percent, the total number of jobs in the state had dropped by 10 percent in 1992. Strapped for funds, the state passed a controversial personal income tax in 1991.

In the early 1990s the wide discrepancy between the standards of living of white suburbanites and inner city, ethnic populations was quite evident in Connecticut. Governor Lowell L. Weicker (1990–94) attempted to alleviate this situation by channeling more funds to urban communities. The employment outlook in the state had improved by the mid-1990s. By 1996 the state again ranked first in per capita income, at $33,189, and less than 10 percent of the population fell below the federal poverty level. To encourage business the state offers a number of tax incentives and it has begun to reduce its high corporate tax rate.

FURTHER READING

Bingham, Harold J. History of Connecticut, 4 vols. New York: Lewis, 1962.

Connecticut Secretary of State. Register and Manual, 1999. Hartford, CT: State of Connecticut, 1999.

Janick, Herbert F. A Diverse People: Connecticut, 1914 to the Present. Chester, CT: Pequot Press, 1975.

Roth, David M. Connecticut: A Bicentennial History. New York: Norton, 1979.

Van Dusen, Albert E. Connecticut. New York: Random House, 1961.