Seeking new opportunities and more religious freedom, Massachusetts settlers founded the Connecticut Colony in the fertile valley along the Quinnehtukqut River. Illustrated throughout, this guide to the Connecticut's early history for readers 9 to 12 discusses Thomas Hooker's Fundamental Orders, America's first written constitution; the nation's first-ever witchcraft trials; and how "Yankee ingenuity" produced the bountiful harvests and the growth of manufacturing that helped win the Revolutionary War.