Hartford Wits

{{Short description|18th century group of young writers from Connecticut}} The '''Hartford Wits''' were a group of young writers from Connecticut in the late 18th century including John Trumbull, Timothy Dwight, David Humphreys, Joel Barlow, and Lemuel Hopkins.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://connecticuthistory.org/the-hartford-wits/|title=The Hartford Wits {{!}} ConnecticutHistory.org|website=connecticuthistory.org|language=en-US|access-date=2017-11-20}}</ref> Originally the '''Connecticut Wits''', the group formed in the late 18th century as a literary society at Yale College and then assumed a new name, the Hartford Wits. Their writings satirized an outmoded curriculum and, more significantly, society and the politics of the mid-1780s.

==American Revolution== Their dissatisfaction with the Articles of Confederation appeared in ''The Anarchiad'' in 1786 and 1787, written by Humphreys, Joel Barlow, Trumbull (the oldest Wit), and Hopkins. In satirizing democratic society, this mock-epic promoted the federal union delineated by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787.<ref>Saillant, John. "Hartford Wits." Dictionary of American History. Ed. Stanley I. Kutler. 3rd ed. Vol. 4. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003. 101-102. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 7 May 2012.</ref>

Despite writing in a satiric tone, some of the Wits, especially Humphreys and Barlow, joined the Continental Army and fought for American independence in the American Revolutionary War.<ref name="auto"/> Dwight became a minister, serving as chaplain to the Connecticut Continental Brigade and also wrote poems and songs, including several devoted to the soldiers of the American Revolution, including "Columbia":<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bartleby.com/360/8/48.html|title=Columbia. Timothy Dwight (1752-1817). I. Patriotism. Bliss Carman, et al., eds. 1904. The World's Best Poetry. VIII. National Spirit|website=www.bartleby.com|access-date=2017-11-20}}</ref> <blockquote><poem> Columbia, Columbia, to glory rise, The queen of the world, and the child of the skies! </poem></blockquote> Trumbull was the only member of the Wits who did not join the Continental Army, but he wrote the satiric poem, "M’Fingal", in which the British cause was mocked.<ref name="auto"/> Humphreys became colonel of the Continental Army and published "Address to the Armies of the United States of America" and other patriotic poems.

==Later careers== The Connecticut Wits eventually went in divergent directions. After ''The Anarchiad'', Trumbull turned away from poetry and increasingly devoted his attention to law and politics. Barlow ultimately repudiated the federalist politics of the Wits altogether. Dwight became the eighth president of Yale University in 1795 and used his position as a platform from which to continue his attacks on the enemies of social order.<ref>"Poetry: The Connecticut Wits." American Eras. Vol. 4: Development of a Nation, 1783-1815. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 59-61. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 7 May 2012</ref> The second generation of Wits included physician and playwright Elihu Hubbard Smith.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Stanley L.|first=Block|date=2000|title=Smith, Elihu Hubbard (1771-1798)|url=https://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-1200856|url-access=subscription|access-date=2022-01-29|website=American National Biography|language=en|doi=10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1200856|isbn=978-0-19-860669-7 }}</ref>

==References== <references />

== External links == *[https://connecticuthistory.org/the-hartford-wits/ "The Hartford Wits] at Connecticut History *[https://estuarymagazine.com/2020/11/the-hartford-wits-the-world-they-made/ "The Hartford Wits and the World They Made"], by Eric D. Lehman, ''Estuary'' magazine *[https://archive.org/details/anessayonuseanda00trumrich "An essay on the use and advantage of the fine arts: Delivered at the public commencement in New Haven, September 12, 1770"] by John Trumbull at Internet Archive

Category:Hartford Wits Category:Culture of Yale University