Connecticut 



and 



Tobacco 



jl\. dozen years after the settlement of Plymouth, 

 Massachusetts, a group of restless colonists was pre- 

 paring to migrate to the territory the Indians called 

 "Quinnitukq-ut": "at the long tidal river." Independ- 

 ently, Dutchmen from Manhattan Island were organiz- 

 ing a colonizing party for the same area, whicli the 

 Enghsh called "Connecticut." The Dutch moved a little 

 earlier than their English rivals. In June 1633 they built 

 a fort on land that later became Hartford. Three or four 

 months after, despite the manned, menacing cannon of 

 the Dutch, the Plymouth men sailed past the fort, set 

 up a frame house prefabricated at Plymouth, and thus 

 established the first English trading post on the site of 

 present Windsor. The proximity of the Connecticut 

 River made both settlements practical choices. 



Apart from the compulsive extension of boundaries 

 that coincided with nationalistic policies, new settlers 

 hoped to find sources of supply that would not only 

 make them self-supporting but might develop into ex- 

 port commodities. A powerful economic goad was the 

 production of tobacco. 



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