The Bicentennial Pamphlet Series

Between 1973 and 1978 the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission of Connecticut published thirty-five pamphlets, under the general editorship of Glenn Weaver, dealing with significant aspects and personalities of Revolutionary Connecticut. Many are by leading scholars, though, of course, the publications are not uniform in quality. Some will be of interest primarily to academics, but most will find a general readership. They can be purchased from the Institute for Connecticut Studies at Eastern Connecticut State College in Willimantic. They are listed at appropriate places throughout this bibliography, the largest number below. An index of 177 pages was compiled by Jean F. Haskins and published by the Connecticut Historical Commission in 1982. It is Connecticut Bicentennial Series:  Index and can be purchased from the Commission (for $2.50 in 1982).

In addition to works covering the whole sweep of Connecticut history, works dealing generally with the Revolutionary Era include Forrest Morgan, ed., Connecticut as A Colony and as a State (Hartford, 1904). Volume II of this series is as close as we come to a full discussion of the War and its era--aside from Buel's work, which is intended for a fairly sophisticated readership. But Morgan's volume is not sophisticated historiographically, is content with narrative-descriptive approaches, and is now very badly out of date.

For a description of Connecticut society during the Revolutionary Era, the best source is Bicentennial pamphlet XXI (1977), by Jackson Turner Main, aptly titled Connecticut Society in the Era of the American Revolution. Using a data base of 4,000 men who died between 1765 and 1789 and thousands more who died earlier, Main finds that "During the entire colonial period, Connecticut's society was distinguished for its stability and the absence of those inequalities so often present even in the colonies. The distribution of property and the characteristics of socio-economic classes in 1765 remarkably resembled those of a hundred years before, and the next quarter of a century introduced only minor differences." (p. 8) Despite this, a few changes were wrought by the War:  "a limited social levelling combined with greater economic inequality, resulting in increased social tension." (p. 71)

For an older work of a very different historical genre, there is Richard J. Purcell's Connecticut in Transition, 1775-1818 (Washington, 1918, reprinted with a new introduction by S. Hugh Brockunier in 1963 by Wesleyan University Press). Whereas Main uses quantitative techniques to develop a profile of society based largely on economic considerations, Purcell is concerned principally with analysis of the relationship of religious factionalism to the rise of political parties and the movement for constitutional reform. Check other Purcell entries in the index.

The coming of the War to Connecticut is treated in its political aspects in Edith Anna Bailey, "Influences Toward Radicalism in Connecticut 1754-1775" (Smith College Studies in History 5[1920]4), an excellent scholarly work that describes internal ideological and political movements. The emphasis on conflict within Connecticut makes this a fine example of Progressive historiography.

Oscar Zeichner, in Connecticut's Years of Controversy (1949, reissued by Archon Press in Hamden in 1970), builds on Bailey to present the best study of the coming of the Revolution to Connecticut. But Zeichner falls into the same trap as Bushman was to later, that of seeing earlier eras as stable and the one he studied as deviating from the norm. After picturing a colonial land of steady habits, Zeichner says that his evidence "indicates that during the several decades before the Revolution, the people of Connecticut were bitterly divided. Issues of local origin split this colony as they did others, even before the imperial question became acute. Religious differences, disputes arising out of economic developments, and political conflicts filled those few decades before the Revolution with controversy. And they prepared the way for the Revolution by creating the groups that were to take the Whig and Tory sides in the last quarrels with England." (p. viii) This, Zeichner allows, is an over-simplified statement of his thesis, but he is to be regarded as either one of the last Progressive historians of Connecticut before the wave of consensus history of the 1950s and 1960s or the harbinger of the Progressive position that became popular again during the 1970s. But even as early as 1950 the consensus historiography heralded by Richard Hofstadter's The American Political Tradition (1948) would weigh against Zeichner. "Certainly Connecticut radicalism was a poor, weak thing compared with that of the Bay Colony or of Virginia," wrote one of Zeichner's reviewers. "Nor except in the Reverend Mr. Peters, was Connecticut toryism as flamboyant or as unyielding as toryism in some of the southern colonies. And torn as Connecticut was internally, the Susquehanna dispute and the Anglicanism issue were negligible indeed compared with the Regulator movement in North Carolina or the anti-Quaker and anti-Penn quarrels in Pennsylvania." (C. Fennelly in New England Quarterly 23 December, 1950, p. 551)

Parker Bradley Nutting's dissertation, "Charter and Crown:  Relations of Connecticut with the British Government, 1662-1776" (University of North Carolina, 1972), though organized topically, provides much material relevant to the coming of the War. He concentrates on boundaries, maritime trade, war, judicial appeals, and religion. In all areas Nutting finds antagonisms developing in Connecticut against the Crown and Privy Council.

Lawrence Gipson's biography, Jared Ingersoll:  A Study of British Loyalism in Relation to British Colonial Government (New Haven, 1920, reissued by Yale as American Loyalist:  Jared Ingersoll in 1971) is an excellent work written from the imperialist viewpoint, sympathetic to the Loyalist position but sound and interesting. Other biographical works shed light on the ideas and events surrounding the War, and readers are referred to the biographical section of this bibliography.

Christopher Collier, Roger Sherman's Connecticut:  Yankee Politics and the American Revolution (Middletown:  Wesleyan University, 197l) discusses the political ramifications of the War in Connecticut and Connecticut's relations with the other colonies, which are treated in popular form in Collier's Bicentennial pamphlet listed below. It is the only full treatment in print of Connecticut during the Confederation period.

At the State Library there is a copy of Rupert Charles Loucks's 300-page M.A. thesis, "Connecticut in the American Revolution" (Wisconsin, 1959). Loucks is very good on the internal politics and economy of Connecticut during the War. Larry Gerlach wrote a thesis on "Connecticut Delegates and the Continental Congress" (Nebraska, 1965) and reported much of his material in three issues of the CHS Bulletin:  31 (July, 1966), 32 (April, 1967), and 33 (April, 1968). Richard Warfle writes perceptively in "Eliphalet Dyer's Stamp Act Crisis," CHS Bulletin 39 (January, 1974) 1.

Two important doctoral dissertations are:

Jordan, Philip H., Jr. "Connecticut Politics During the Revolution and Confederation, 1776-1789" (Yale, 1962). Jordan analyzes the factionalism that marked Connecticut both during and after the war, focused as it was on shifting issues, such as Western expansionism, agrarian-merchant antagonism, officers' pensions, nationalism and antinationalism, and, finally, ratification of the U.S. Constitution.

Wachtell, Harvey Milton. "The Conflict Between Localism and Nationalism in Connecticut, 1783-1788" (University of Missouri, 1971). Wachtell describes the economic conflicts that he claims rent Connecticut society during the Confederation, but emphasizes the ideological differences that separated localists from nationalists, each of whom had their own view of the "Good Society" that should be constructed after the War. "They were rudely shocked in 1783 and 1784 when they became fully aware of each other's political, social, and economic views.... Although at times economic issues...provoked some of the most intense debates, these disputes often reflected divergent social and political philosophies." (p.v.)

Among the Bicentennial pamphlets, the following will prove the most useful for an understanding of the War and its era

Collier, Christopher. Connecticut in the Continental Congress. II (1973). A popular effort to clarify the issues and internal politics of the War through a discussion of the delegates of the Continental Congress.

Destler, Chester M. Connecticut:  The Provisions State V (1973).

Main, Jackson Turner. Connecticut Society in the Era of the American Revolution. XXI (1977).

Meyer, Freeman W. Connecticut Congregationalism in the Revolutionary Era. XXIII (1977).

Steiner, Bruce E. Connecticut Anglicans in the Revolutionary Era:  A Study in Tensions. XXVIII (1978).

The series includes a number of biographical studies, many of which provide considerable information and some of which develop interesting insights into the War years:

Cohen, Sheldon S. Connecticut's Loyalist Gadfly:  The Reverend Samuel Andrew Peters. XVII (1976).

Cummin, Katharine H. Connecticut Militia General:  Gold Selleck Silliman. XXXV (1979).

Daniels, Bruce Colin. Connecticut's First Family:  William Pitkin and His Connections. XI (1975).

Gerlach, Larry R. Connecticut Congressman:  Samuel Huntington, 1731-1796. XX (1976).

Ifkovic, John W. Connecticut's Nationalist Revolutionary:  Jonathan Trumbull, Junior. XXV (1977).

Littieri, Ronald John. Connecticut's Young Man of the Revolution:  Oliver Ellsworth. XXX (1978).

Niven, John. Connecticut Hero:  Israel Putnam. XXII (1977).

Rommel, John G. Connecticut's Yankee Patriot:  Roger Sherman. XXXIV (1979).

Roth, David M. Connecticut's War Governor:  Jonathan Trumbull. IX (1974).

Stark, Bruce P. Connecticut Signer. William Williams. XII (1975).

Thompson, Marvin G. Connecticut Entrepreneur:  Christopher Leffingwell. XXXIII (1979).

Wallace, Willard M. Connecticut’s Dark Star of the Revolution:  General Benedict Arnold. XXVI (1978).

Willingham, William F. Connecticut Revolutionary:  Eliphalet Dyer. XIX (1976).

Others in the pamphlet series are listed below.

Many of the figures listed above are also well studied in one or more full-scale biographies, and interested readers should turn to the "Biographies" section at the end of this bibliography.