Documents and Narratives of Particular Events

Baldwin, Simeon E. "The New Haven Convention of 1778." Papers of the NHCHS 3 (1882):33-62. An account of one of several regional price-fixing conventions held during the war. They didn't help beat inflation.

Bickford, Christopher. "In the King's Pay: Two Customs Officials in New Haven, 1774-1776." CHS Bulletin 42 (January, 1977) 1:1-7.

Bland, James E. "The Tangled Affairs of Treasurer John Lawrence," CHS Bulletin 36 (January, 1971) 1:1-9.  Describes the efforts of Oliver Wolcott, Jr. to unravel and expose the frauds and forgetfulness of Lawrence, treasurer from 1776 to 1786. Lawrence lost his job and his reputation but apparently made away with a great deal of illgotten cash. Bland does not deal with the politics surrounding the position of comptroller held by Wolcott -- a position created in the wake of the Lawrence scandal and held first by James Wadsworth who was removed from the £150 a year job because he voted against ratifying the U.S. Constitution.

Collier, Christopher. "When the Hessians Came to New Haven, 1767." Journal of the NHCHS 17 (September, 1968) 3:79-81. When New York refused to billet 188 recruits from Silesia, they were sent to Connecticut.

Daniels, Bruce C. "Emerging Urbanism and Increasing Social Stratification in the Era of the American Revolution." Studies in the Social Sciences: XV, The American Revolution: The Home Front. West Georgia College, 1976. A sophisticated study of the increasing complexity of Connecticut's few major commercial centers. See also the author's "Connecticut Villages Become Mature Towns," cited elsewhere.

Destler, Chester M. "Colonel Henry Champion, Revolution Commissary." CHS Bulletin 36 (April, 1971) 2:52-64. This article should be read in the context of Destler's Bicentennial pamphlet The Provisions State, cited above, and his CHS Bulletin piece on Barnabas Deane.

Henry, Susan. "Work, Widowhood and War: Hannah Bunce Watson, Connecticut Printer," CHS Bulletin 48 (Winter, 1983) 1:24-39. Mrs. Watson took over the Connecticut Courant when her husband died in 1777. She was one of seventeen women printers in colonial America.

Lines, Edwin S. "Jared Ingersoll, Stamp Master, and the Stamp Act." Papers of the NHCHS 9 (1918):174-200. This piece serves as an introduction to seventy-five pages of Ingersoll papers covering the years 1743-1781. Gipson is better on Ingersoll, however.

Logan, Gwendolyn Evans. "The Slave in Connecticut during the American Revolution." CHS Bulletin 30 (July, 1965) 3:73-80. A sound short piece, but superseded by White (below).

Loucks, Rupert C. "Let the Oppressed Go Free": Reformation and Revolution in English Connecticut, 1764-1775." Dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1995. Loucks worked over thirty years on this thousand-page study. He echoes Carl Becerk's thesis that "In its origins this Revolution had been a twin movement -- on the one hand, an attempt to replace on colonial political faction with a new set of leaders, and on the other a move to oppose British restrictions on colonial self-government and economic interests. In its immediate consequences this resistance movement had resulted in a successful intercolonial war for independence which imposed a new central government over the state. In its long-range consequences, the Revolution left a marked influence on the patterns of social and economic life in Connecticut. Equally significant was the influence of the Revolutionary period on the patterns of political life and the attitude of the freemen toward the state government." P. 239. This study includes a lot of new information about black agitation for abolition and equal treatment. By far the best study of democratic strivings during the pre-Revolutionary era.

Mather, Frederick Gregory. The Refugees of 1776 from Long Island to Connecticut. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1972. Originally published in 1913, this huge compendium includes a narrative account of Patriot refugees from British-occupied Long Island, together with histories of the military units with which the refugees had served. There is a 420-page biographical section and appendixes of more than 500 pages of relevant documents. The whole thing is in small print, with narrow margins. It includes many illustrations of men and houses and some maps.

Reichenbach, Karl H. "The Connecticut Clergy and the Stamp Act" Historical Essays (University of Michigan Publications in History and Political Science) 11 (1937):141-58. Sound and scholarly, but other works, such as Freeman Meyer's Bicentennial pamphlet, are good and easier to find.

Roth, David M. "Connecticut in the American Revolutionary War." The Connecticut Review 9 (November, 1975) 1. A quick, easy overview, with a short historiographic introduction.

Stark, Bruce P., ed. “Journal of the General Assembly, 1773." CHS Bulletin 38 (July, 1975) 3:91-96. This rare find is the eye-witness account of Stephen Chalker, deputy from Saybrook, at this interesting session.

Trumbull, James H. "Sons of Liberty in Connecticut in 1775." The New Englander 35 (April, 1876). A still useful Centennial piece that traces the use of the phrase "Sons of Liberty" from the 1740s up to the outbreak of the War.

Warfle, Richard R. "The Last Hurrah: The Spring Election of 1774." The Connecticut Review 2l (January, 1980). An account by a professional historian of a crucial election on the eve of the War.

White, David O. Connecticut’s Black Soldiers, 1775-1783. Bicentennial pamphlet IV (1973). White identified some three hundred Connecticut blacks who served in the War, many with distinction but none as officers.

There are several Bicentennial pamphlets that do not fit any of the categories in this bibliography but which focus on the Revolutionary Era:

Barrow, Thomas C. Connecticut Joins the Revolution. I (1973). A very quick flight through the minds of typical Patriots and Loyalists; based almost entirely Gipson’s Ingersoll and Zeichner’s Connecticut’s Years of Controversy, cited above.

Cutler, Charles. Connecticut’s Revolutionary Press. XIV (1975).

Fennelly, Catherine. Connecticut Women in the Revolutionary Era. XV (1975). See under “Women.”

Frost, William J. Connecticut Education in the Revolutionary Era. VII (1974). See under “Education.”

Kuslan, Louis I. Connecticut Science, Technology, and Medicine in the Era of the American Revolution. XXVII (1978). See under ”Industry” and “Medicine.”

Parker, Wyman W. Connecticut’s Colonial and Continental Money. XVIII (1976). See under “Colonial Economy.”

Rome, Adam Ward. Connecticut’s Cannon: The Salisbury Furnace in the American Revolution XXIV (1977).

Tucker, Louis Leonard. Connecticut’s Seminary of Sedition: Yale College. VIII (1974). This monograph explores the “caldron of Whiggery.” Of nearly 1,000 graduates alive at the outbreak of the War, only twenty-one became Loyalists. “The extra-ordinarily high percentage of Yale graduates who supported the Revolution, coupled with the college’s acknowledged reputation as a ’seminary of sedition,’ strongly suggests a cause-effect relationship.” (pp. 21-22) The author wrote an excellent scholarly biography of Thomas Clap, pre-Revolutionary president of Yale, listed below.

Walsh, James P. Connecticut Industry and the Revolution. XXIX (1978). See under “Industry.”

Waffle, Richard T. Connecticut’s Western Colony: The Susquehannah Affair. XXXII (1979). See under “Susquehannah Company.”

Warren, William Lamson. Connecticut Art and Architecture: Looking Backwards Two Hundred Years. XVI (1976). See under “Architecture.”

Wilson, Ruth Mack, with Keller, Kate Van Winkle. Connecticut Music in the Revolutionary Era. XXXI (1979). See under “Music.”

The intellectual history of the Revolution in Connecticut can be read in Morgan’s Stiles and Tucker’s Clap, listed in the biographies, as well as in Tucker’s Bicentennial pamphlet Connecticut’s Seminary of Sedition: Yale College cited above; Bernard Bailyn’s “The Reverend Stephen Johnson and the Stamp Act in Lyme: Religious and Political Thought in the Origins of the Revolution,” in George Wilauer, ed., A Lyme Miscellany (Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1971) ; Mark A. Noll’s “Ebenizer Devotion: Religion and Society in Revolutionary Connecticut,” Church History 40 (1976):293-307; Bruce Stark’s “Stephen Johnson: Patriot Minister,” CHS Bulletin 44 (January, 1979) 1:17-32; and Wayne U. Tyner’s “Timothy Dwight on the American Revolution,” CHS Bulletin 41 (October 1976) 4:107-18. Biographies of Oliver Ellsworth, Silas Deane, Eliphalet Dyer, William Samuel Johnson, Roger Sherman, Jonathan Trumbull, and William Williams also provide an understanding of the ideas that justified the movement for independence.