From farming to shipbuilding — Connecticut played an essential role in the war effort during the American Revolution. It was even nicknamed the “Provisions State” for its contributions to General George Washington’s army.
Elizabeth Kaeser, director of the Connecticut River Museum, says that is reason to celebrate this Independence Day.
WSHU’s Sabrina Garone spoke with Kaeser as part of the podcast After All Things.
WSHU: Could you give us an idea of what life was like in Connecticut around this time of the American Revolution, and the different kinds of industries that were going on here?
EK: I'm going to back up just a little bit to the beginnings of the European arrival. For much of the time that this land mass was populated, there were a variety of Indigenous groups that had trade patterns that existed all over New England. And would have been, I suspect, pretty surprised to see a guy named Adrian Block, who was from Amsterdam, tooling up the Connecticut River in his boat. He arrived in 1614 and mapped the whole region. He went up many of the waterways, and as far as we know, he was the first European to go up the Connecticut River. He established that Long Island was, in fact, an island. Ultimately, the Dutch did create a trading post called the Fort of New Hope, which was about where Hartford is situated today.
During the time of the American Revolution, a lot of Connecticut was pretty rural. There were some small urban areas in Hartford, New Haven, New London and Middletown, but it was pretty quiet. Fur, timber and iron were all big trade commodities and were being shipped all over the globe. And in part, that shipping was amplified by the fact that the Connecticut River had become a place for shipbuilding. Over the course of 200 years, thousands of boats were built. These vessels were constructed along the river, and then generally went off to larger trading hubs like New London, New York or Boston to participate in global trade. But this was a key factor for the economy.
WSHU: And I'm sure that had a lot to do with being on the Long Island Sound as well. How important was it to the Revolution to have this kind of access to the water? The Connecticut River, as well as Long Island Sound.
EK: Connecticut was well located and working in both directions. The Connecticut River itself is 410 miles. It stretches essentially from the border with Canada to Long Island Sound, so it traverses all of New England. But many other waterways were navigable and you could get up towards Boston and into Rhode Island, and then of course you have Long Island Sound. So there was a lot of opportunity for shipping and for trade. And a lot of the waters in Long Island Sound are fairly deep, so they were good places for boat building. As the Revolutionary War approached, they were good places for privateers to hang out and hide out. And obviously people could go through the Sound to get to New York Harbor, which the British tried very hard to stop trade. That was one of the reasons why a guy named David Bushnell was particularly interested in developing the first submarine that could be used in warfare.
WSHU: That is so crazy to me! Could you tell me more about that?
EK: David Bushnell was from Westbrook. He was a Yale graduate, and became very interested in the idea that you could get something to explode underwater! As the American Revolution took hold, he turned his eye to the war effort. Yale signed on to support this effort, many people from Connecticut fought in the battle of Lexington and Concord, and he wanted to figure out how he could do his part. He came up with the notion of two concave structures, which sort of looked like two turtle shells. That's why the vessel is called the American Turtle.
And he did a number of things that were very new and very innovative. He used water as ballast, which continues to be how submarines determine how high they are in the water. He created a screw propeller, which had never been used before and is now on vessels everywhere. He also used an underwater explosive device that was on a timer. So he used the clockmaking skills that a lot of people in Connecticut were using at that time. In a later writing, George Washington actually reflected on Bushnell and his efforts in a letter to Thomas Jefferson. He wrote, "Bushnell is a man of great mechanical powers, fertile of invention and a master of execution. And then I thought and still think, that his Turtle was an effort of genius." Which I think is a pretty cool thing! Ultimately, the Turtle never quite worked. The bomb and timer worked perfectly, but the approach to attach the two didn't quite come together. I think it's a wonderful story because Connecticut today is still home to builders of large vessels. I like to think that this was the very beginning of that through line to the present.
WSHU: I think when we talk about this time in American history, the big players are Boston, Philly and even New York City. But were there any other key moments in the American Revolution that took place here in Connecticut that people might be surprised to learn about?
EK: One of the things that's interesting about Connecticut is that it was never occupied by the British in the way that say, New York was. And that meant that Connecticut could contribute in other ways. It manufactured a lot of things for the war effort, and during the American Revolution it took on the name "the Provision State." So it was very much involved in the war effort, but the war wasn't necessarily happening in Connecticut in quite the same way as some of the other places that we think of. And I think one of the great provisions that was provided, particularly provided by the people of Essex, was the Oliver Cromwell, which was a huge war ship. It was commissioned by Washington, by the army, in early 1776. The creation of this war ship was a massive undertaking. It required a lot of different trades. When you think about building a boat, you need people that are making sails, making ropes, spares — there are all of these ancillary trades and people who were working very hard to build this boat and others that were used for the war effort. That's the real story for our corner of Connecticut. There was a lot of provision of goods that were needed for the war effort which could be sailed out of Long Island Sound to other areas that needed re-provisioning.
WSHU: I think it's easy to forget sometimes how much history is right here in our own backyards. Why do you think it's so important for people not just to know their country's history, but know their history more locally, like in their town or city?
EK: I think that history is always with us. History informs everything that we do, and sometimes we're not even aware of it. The way towns are laid out, the houses that are preserved — all of this is a reflection of where we've been. I give tours sometimes, and I find myself talking about the past in the present tense. You know, people say "if you don't know about the past you're doomed to repeat it." I think there's validity to that as a concept, but we really need to understand where we've been, what choices were made, what the outcomes of those choices were, so that we can be informed as we continue to make new choices. We are in charge of our own collective destiny, and where our local communities are going is in our hands. You want to make good decisions that are informed with as much information as you can possibly gather, and that certainly includes what came before.
The Connecticut River Museum is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Visit their website for a full list of events.
