Connecticut was a New England colony, and the settlers were therefore English. These colonists were Puritans that separated from Massachusetts so that they could practice their faith separately from the rest of the English. They separated from England because the country was going to become completely Catholic, but these settlers wanted the freedom to practice their form of religion. Most of the early settlers wanted peace and trade with the natives so that both groups could benefit. They refused, however, to leave the natives' territory, and this later sparked a war. These early settlers also had many Dutch men and women among them, who were truly the first to explore this part of the New World. Since there were both Dutch and Englishmen, they spoke both English and Dutch. Since the settlers were Puritans, they were technically Protestants, but were simply Protestants with extreme views.
As seen above, the colonists wore clothing similar to most other colonists at the time. Men wore tall hats and long shirts, often with small capes. Women wore dresses, but these were mostly utilitarian, and weren't very colorful or eccentric. A lot of the materials that the settlers used came from trade with the native tribes. The most influential tribe that the settlers interacted with was the Pequot tribe. The settlers both traded with, and later fought with, this tribe. They have a reservation Northeast of New Haven.
When the Connecticut colony fist started, a man named Thomas Hooker was in charge. He "...led a group of followers west and built a town known as Hartford"(USHistory.org, 2016). Considering the fact that Hartford went on to become the state's capital, Hooker was a fantastic leader. He was "A staunch supporter of universal Christian sufferage (voting rights independent of church membership),"(Encyclopedia Britannica, 2016).
By the mid-600s, "...Connecticut had the largest number of slaves in New England"(ConnecticutHistory.org, 2015). African slaves were integral to Connecticut's early agriculturally focused economy. It took Connecticut longer that normal to abolish slavery, because they put an age restriction on when you could go free. In the end, slavery was abolished in Connecticut just like everywhere else in the US.
