Connecticut

The Connecticut panel commemorates newspaper publisher Hannah Bunce Watson. She inherited The Connecticut Courant in 1777 at age 27 upon her husband's death, making her one of America's first female publishers and a significant voice for the Patriot cause. After the paper mill necessary for printing the Courant was reportedly set afire by Tory sympathizers (lower right), Watson successfully petitioned the General Assembly for a lottery to raise the funds necessary to rebuild the mill. She never missed an issue.

Connecticut played a critical role as the "Provisions State" during the Revolutionary War. Salisbury's cannon foundry appears in the panel alongside Canaan's marble quarries, East Haven's saltworks, and farmland that supplied provisions to Continental troops.

Soldiers of the integrated 7th Connecticut Regiment, including African American Patriot Prince Simbo, appear in the upper right, while Jonathan Trumbull's War Office in Lebanon — known as "The Pentagon of the Revolution" — stands in the background as the coordination center for military and logistical efforts.