New England Colony
Connecticut
Founded in 1636
Founded by Thomas Hooker
Presented by Lexi Ippolito and
Hunter Smith
Geographical Characteristics And
Climate
• The geography was
shaped by glaciers.
• Most of the land had a
rocky, dirty, thin road of
dirt.
• Forests and rugged
mountains made it hard
to find good farmland.
• Bad climate, such as cold
weather most of the year
and short growing
seasons but warm in the
summer.
• Rocky and sandy land
made it hard to farm.
Reason For Settlement
 The reason for the
settlement of Connecticut
was for religious and
economic freedom.
 Colonists didn’t like the
rules of Puritan leaders.
 Thomas Hooker wanted
to form a new community
where all men could vote,
even if they weren’t
church members.
Religious Beliefs
 What the people learned in
church depended on were
they lived.
 Colonists had houses of
worship.
 Their lives were very strict.
 Parents thought their
children should learn
Christianity.
Government
• The colony of
Connecticut had self
government.
• Colonists had town
meetings to vote on laws
for the colony.
Education
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Puritans wanted everybody to read the
Bible.
Some parents taught their kids how to
read and write at home but New
England towns had lots of schools
including Harvard college, the first
college in the thirteen colonies.
New England colonists worked really
hard but they made time for some play.
Sports like horseracing and bowling
were popular and common. People also
played an early version of baseball
which was town ball.
In winter, colonists went to go ice
skating or sledding down big hills for fun.
Towns And Cities
Two of the major
cities in the colony
were Hartford and
New Haven.
 In 1636, when
Hooker led about
100 colonists to
the Connecticut
River, they founded
the town of
Hartford.

Agriculture/Manufacturing
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The agriculture in Connecticut was
wheat, corn, and fishing.
The oceans off the New England coast
were full of fish.
People made their living by catching and
selling fish.
The most common fish was cod, which
then became New England’s key part of
economy.
Merchants sold much of the fish as
exports to Europe and the West Indies.
Sailors also used whales from the
oceans to make products such as oil for
lamps.
Fishing and whaling were mostly what
people did for food and occupation
because farming was very difficult in
New England.
Settlements/Homes
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In the houses, there were often six or
seven kids.
Most of the lights in the houses came
from candles and lamps.
Families lived in small wooden houses
with few rooms and windows.
Most of the houses just had one room
with a huge fireplace.
At night, the families slept on mattresses
by the fireplace with the fire going to
keep warm.
One table stood in the middle of the
room for meals.
Richer families might have a second
story or loft in their home where there
would be more room for sleeping at
night.
A colonial home was more than just a
building where a family ate and slept.
Other Interesting Facts
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The population of Connecticut was
183,900 colonists in 1770.
Boys had to bring in wood for the
fireplace, care for the farm animals,
gather wild berries and vegetables, help
plow fields and plant crops, and help
build and repair buildings.
Girls had to weave cloth for clothing,
preserve fruit and vegetables, cook the
food, make soap and candles, and help
with the planting and harvesting in the
fields.
New England colonist caught 600,000
pounds of fish in 1641.
Younger kids played things like hide and
seek, hop scotch, and tag.
The older kids played things like
checkers, backgammon, and dominoes.
Other Important People To Know
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Olaudah Equiano was
enslaved as a boy,
survived the Middle
Passage. Years later,
he described the
horrors of the journey
in a book.
Thomas Hooker was
the founder of the
colony Connecticut.