Though Connecticut be the most flourishing, and, proportionally, the
most populous, province in North America, it has hitherto found no
writer to introduce it, in its own right, to the notice of the world.
Slight and cursory mention in the accounts of other provinces, or of
America in general, has yet only been made of it. The historians of
New England have constantly endeavored to aggrandize Massachusetts Bay
as the parent of the other colonies, and as comprehending all that is
worthy of attention in that country. Thus Governor Hutchinson says, in
the preface of his history of that province, that “there was no
importation of planters from England to any part of the continent
northward of Maryland, excepting to Massachusetts, for more than fifty
years after the colony began;” not knowing, or willing to forget, or
to conceal, that Saybrook, New Haven, and Long Island, were settled
with emigrants from England within half that period. Another reason
for the obscurity in which the Connectitensians have hitherto been
involved is to be found among their own sinister views and purposes:
Prudence dictated that their deficiency in point of right to the soil
they occupied, their wanton and barbarous persecutions, illegal
practices, daring usurpations, etc., had better be concealed than
exposed to public view.
To dissipate this cloud of prejudice and knavery, and to bring to
light truths long concealed, is the motive of my offering the
following sheets to the world. I am bold to assert that Connecticut
merits a fuller account than envy or ignorance has yet suffered to be
given it; and that I have followed the line of truth freely, and
unbiased by partiality or prejudice. The reader, therefore, will not
be surprised should I have placed the New-Englanders in a different
light from that in which they have yet appeared: their characterizers
have not been sufficiently unprejudiced, unawed by power, or
unaffected by the desire of obtaining it, always to set them in a true
one. Dr. Mather and Mr. Neal were popular writers, but, at the time
they extolled the prudence and piety of the colonists, they suppressed
what are called in New England unnecessary truths. Governor
Hutchinson, who loved fame, and feared giving offense, published a few
only of those truths, which failed not to procure him a proportionate
share of popular distrust and odium. For my own part, I believe my
readers will give me credit for having neither the favor nor the fear
of man before me in writing this history of Connecticut. I discard the
one; I court not the other. My sole aim has been to represent the
country, the people, and their transactions, in proper colors. Too
much, however, must not be expected from me. I am very sensible of
many great defects in this performance, wherein very little assistance
was to be obtained from publications of others. Mr. Chambers, indeed,
who is writing “Political Annals of the Present United Colonies,”
pursues that task with great pains and address. His researches have
been of some use to me; but, as to the New England writers, error,
disguise, and misrepresentations, too much abound in them to be
serviceable in this undertaking, though they related more to the
subject than they do. The good-natured critic, therefore, will excuse
the want of a regular and connected detail of facts and events which
it was impossible for me to preserve, having been deprived of papers
of my ancestors which would have given my relation that and other
advantages. I hope, therefore, for much indulgence, striking, as I
have done, into a new and dark path, almost without a guide. If I have
carried myself through it, though with some digressions, yet without
incurring the danger of being accounted a deceiver, my disordered garb
will, I presume, find an apology in the ruggedness of the road--my
Scriptural phraseology be ascribed to the usage of my country.
For three generations my forefathers were careful observers of the
proceedings of the Connecticut colonists; and if their papers and
myself should continue in existence till a return of peace shall
restore them to my possession, I trust the public will not be
displeased with the design I have of committing them to the press. In
the mean time, lest that event should never take place, I beg their
acceptance of the present volume, which, whatever other historical
requisite it may want, must, I think, be allowed to possess
originality and truth (rare properties in modern publications), and,
therefore, I hope, will not be deemed unworthy the public favor.