Scholarly
Analyses of Aspects of Social History
A
few professional scholars have attempted analyses of aspects of
Connecticut society not elsewhere listed in this bibliography.
Capens,
Edward Warren. Historical Development of the Poor Law in Connecticut.
New York: Columbia University Press, 1905. Apparently the outgrowth
of a doctoral dissertation. “No attempt has been made to relate
this growth to the social, economic, and industrial history of
the colony and state .... Nor has much been said about the practical
workings of the law.” (p. 5) An account of the statutes and their
judicial interpretation—law by law, case by case. Comprehensive,
but not analytical. Nevertheless, very useful. Capens deals with
all sorts of social legislation: bastardy, divorce, fornication,
slaves, Indians, the insane, etc. He concludes that such legislation
was a town function in Connecticut, and that the system’s “excellencies
and its defects grow out of the fact that the activity of the
state and county has been reduced to a minimum.” (p. 464)
Daniels,
Bruce C., has two pieces culled from his book, Puritanis at
Play: Leisure and Recreation in Colonial New England. New
York: St. Martins Press, 1995. They are: "Frolics for Fun:
Dances, Weddings, and Dinner Parties in Colonial New England,"
Historical Journal of Massachusetts. 21 (Summer, 1993)
1-22; and "Sober Mirth and Pleasant Poisons: Puritan Ambivalence
toward Leisure and Recreation in Colonial New England," American
Studies. 34 (Spring, 1993) 121-37.
Ditz,
Toby Lee. “Ownership and Obligation: Family and Inheritance in
Five Connecticut Towns, 1750-1820.” Doctoral dissertation, Columbia,
1982. “This study compares inheritance patterns in four upland,
subsistence-plus communities and one river-valley, commercial
town. The comparison explores links between familial property
arrangements and degree of rural integration into developing regional
and export markets. The analysis of inheritance highlights three
aspects of practices: equality and inequality in the distribution
of property among family members, the types of rights created
in property, and the timing of inheritance transfers.
“The
patterns of inheritance typical of the two types of communities
differed dramatically in the early nineteenth century. Inheritance
practices making use of lifetime transfers and heavily favoring
some male heirs while burdening them with obligations predominated
in the late colonial era. This pattern still prevailed in the
upland, relatively self-sufficient towns of the early nineteenth
century, but disappeared in the commercial agricultural community.
In the latter, heirs were not burdened, property was transmitted
unencumbered and late, and inequalities among heirs decreased.”
(private correspondence from Ms. Ditz to the authors) The five
towns are Bolton, Coventry, Union, Wethersfield, and Willington.
Martin,
Scott C. "Violence, Gender, and Intemperance in Early National
Connecticut," Journal of Social History 34 (2000)
2: Martin analyzes the polemical literature that arose out
of the 1816 case of Peter Lung, hung for murdering his wife. Martin
sees a watershed moment when the forces of gentility and temperance
altered the image of woman from temptress to virtuous. He does
this by illuminating the gandered distinction between drunken
men and drunken women.
McConnell,
Virginia A. Arsenic Under the Elms: Murder in Victorian New
Haven. Westport, Conn., Praeger, 1999. This book discusses
two sex-related murders in 1878 and c. 1880. The author raises
questions of law, gender, and media influence in an effort to
appeal to a general readership. The reviewer for the JAH was put
off by anachronistic asides and the "you were there"
approach. 88 (June 2002) Class and gender wins; upper class men
get off when the victim is lower class and female.
Mitchell,
Rowland Lippincott, Jr. “Social Legislation in Connecticut, 1919-1939.”
Doctoral dissertation, Yale, 1954. Check index for location of
annotation.
Peck,
Esther Alice. “A Conservative Generation’s Amusements: A Phase
of Connecticut’s Social History.” The Maine Bulletin 40(April,
1938)12. University of Maine Studies, Second Series, No. 44. This
is a published master’s thesis, directed by Rising Lake Morrow,
covering the period from 1818 to about 1850. Exhibitions of a
six-legged calf and unicorns (rhinoceroses) were okay, but P.
T. Barnum could not bring his stilt-walking Italian into the state.
Training days and Yale commencement were legitimate excuses for
spiritous rolicking; holidays, but not holy days, were fun with
fireworks and all that. Lectures, poetry, recitals, parlor games,
and bees passed the time away. A good chapter on music is included,
as are citations, an index, and a good bibliography.
Squire,
William Walter Thomas. Charities and Corrections in Connecticut.
Tercentenary pamphlet LVII (1936). Pays a lot of attention to
the nineteenth century and brings the story down to the 1930s.
Stevenson,
Louise L. “A Conservative Critique of Victorian Culture: The New
Haven
Set, 1840-1890. “Continuity l(Fall, 1980):61-74.
Stewart,
George. A History of Religious Education in Connecticut....
Check the index for discussion of this work.
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