ABSTRACT
This chapter examines inheritance practices in late colonial Connecticut. In line with revisionist thinking and previous studies of inheritance, it contends that Hartzian imagery inadequately describes the colonial inheritance practices. The chapter then explores the impact of commercialization on inheritance. It shows a dramatically different pattern of inheritance emerging in one highly commercialized river-valley town by the early nineteenth century. Inheritance practices became more egalitarian and displayed an individualist orientation toward the possession and use of property. Their logic was no longer compatible with patriarchal households; the connection between inheritance of family property and life chances had weakened. In this setting, but only in this setting, Hartzian imagery holds true. The chapter draws on data from a larger study that compares inheritance practices in four towns located in the upland and interior of eastern Connecticut with those in Wethersfield, a minor port town on the Connecticut River just below Hartford.
