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Compiled by Nancy Finlay
What do you think of when you hear the term “Connecticut
Yankee?” Some people may think of Mark Twain’s novel,
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Others may think
of the New York baseball team. The standard definition for “Yankee”
is an inhabitant of New England. A “Connecticut Yankee”
may be defined as an inhabitant of the state of Connecticut. The
term probably is derived from “Janke” which is Dutch
for “Little John.” In early colonial times, it was used
to refer to pirates, but gradually it began to be applied to New
Englanders in general and to take on other meanings and connotations.
Yankee characteristics include shrewdness, mechanical ingenuity,
and individualism. Connecticut Yankees have long been famous as
entrepreneurs, inventors and peddlers who could drive a sharp
bargain. Although the very first Yankee settlers came from Great
Britain, other ethnic groups and races were represented by the
end of the seventeenth century. By the end of the nineteenth century,
Connecticut Yankees included descendants of Africans, French-Canadians,
Germans, Irishmen, Italians, Poles, Russians, Swedes-the list
goes on and on. Connecticut, like America as a whole, was a true
“melting pot.”
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