Connecticut's Role in US Independence

0:00As we gear up for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, let's rewind to what Connecticut folks were reading in. Their local paper back in July 1776. The Connecticut Current and Hartford Weekly Intelligence Sur, run by Ebenezer Watson, dropped George Washington's call for British Red Codes to ditch the King and settle here. Then on July 15, they printed the full Declaration straight from Philly Bigwigs like Ben Franklin and John Hancock. Here that week on July 8, the paper amplified the revolutionary buzz, but tensions had been brewing for years. Flashback to September 15, 1774, when the first Hartford convention defied Britain with a boycott on their goods and west. Indies imports, basically America's debut economic sanctions. Most colonists weren't all in on cutting ties with the mother country. True independence fans were a minority, just like in most revolutions. Many just wanted to keep life rolling without war drama, so gossip probably outshown politics

1:02in readership. But Connecticut saw real pain, like Benedict Arnold's force torching New London and taking Fort Griswold on September 6, 1781. Dig deeper. And Connecticut earned the nickname Provision State for fueling the fight, think Ethan Allen's iron furnace in Salisbury cranking out over. 800 cannons, plus gunpowder from local villages. Things like Yale grad Silas Dean, who negotiated with the French and schoolteacher Nathan Hale, Hamed at 21, left their mark too. Places like Hale's family home and pre-revolution structures still stand today, reminding us how Connecticut's grit, powered the nation's birth, and echoes through our roads and history. Local news, powered by AI, this is Hartford News Today.