Life in and around the Windsor Palisado

Today's Palisado Green and Avenue are both named after a fortification that existed for only a short period of time: 1636 to about 1640 or so.  The arrival of Europeans to the areas now called Massachusetts and Connecticut shifted the tensions that already existed among the lands' diverse Indigenous groups. English ambitions to break Dutch control over trade led to alliances with some Native peoples, conflicts with others, and, ultimately, the devastating Pequot War. It was in this period that the English Puritans who had settled in Windsor built a wooden palisade (or, as they called it, a "Palisado")

This large fenced-in space served as a place of retreat and protection. What was daily life like inside the Palisado?  And, what happened to the Palisado? This project provides a glimpse into that history.

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