America’s first political trolls? the Hartford Wits, savage coffee house poets of 1790s Connecticut

Connecticut’s Coffee House Poets Waged Literary War

The Richard Alsop IV House in Middletown connects visitors to America’s first gang of literary troublemakers. In 1791, a group of Yale-educated poets gathered in Hartford coffee houses to mock terrible newspaper writing.

What started as casual ridicule became “The Echo,” a savage satirical publication that attacked politicians, farmers, and anyone they thought was ruining the new nation.

The Hartford Wits had already written brutal verse targeting states that wouldn’t ratify the Constitution and Thomas Jefferson’s democratic ideas.

These literary rebels essentially invented American political satire through their coordinated attacks from Connecticut River taverns.

Here’s how this poetry gang changed political discourse forever, and what you’ll discover at the historic house that preserves their legacy.

A Newspaper Mockery Sparked America’s First Satire Club

Richard Alsop III and his friends got together one evening in 1791 at William Brown’s Hartford office. The Connecticut Courant editor tossed them some newspapers for fun.

Someone read a silly, over-the-top description of a Boston thunderstorm, making everyone laugh. The group made fun of all the “absurd and conceited” writing in newspapers back then.

They decided to write funny verses mocking such bad writing, with each person adding a few lines about that Boston storm.

The Boston Storm Parody Became an Instant Hit

Alsop took their group poem home, fixed it up, and sent it to the Hartford paper editor. Readers loved how they turned stuffy, fancy writing into something funny.

People wanted more pieces like it. The funny verses quickly caught on throughout Connecticut and beyond.

Hopkins, Trumbull, and other writing friends soon joined in.

What began as a joke during a night out turned into a regular publication that changed how Americans talked about politics.

Yale Graduates Formed America’s First Literary Gang

The main group included Yale-educated poets from rich Connecticut families.

John Trumbull, Timothy Dwight, David Humphreys, Joel Barlow, Richard Alsop, and Lemuel Hopkins made up this smart team.

They liked British joke-writers like Alexander Pope and wanted to keep Connecticut’s old-fashioned thinking alive.

The group first came together to update Yale’s outdated classes but found a more fun use for their skills.

Connecticut River Coffee Houses Hosted Secret Writing Sessions

These poets met often in Hartford’s coffee houses and bars along the Connecticut River. They sat at long tables talking about books and how words could help build their new country.

Richard Alsop opened a bookstore that became another spot for planning their writing attacks. In these casual places, they created American political humor as a team effort.

The coffee house setting gave them both privacy and ideas for their creative plans.

Their First Big Project Attacked States Resisting the Constitution

Four of the Wits worked together on “The Anarchiad” between 1786 and 1787, creating a harsh mock-story that targeted states slow to approve the Constitution. They printed it in 12 parts in the New Haven Gazette.

The poem claimed to be old heroic pieces found in ruined western forts.

This clever format let them use humor to support federal union while attacking what they saw as too much democracy.

Farmers Got Portrayed as Lazy Subhumans in Their Verses

The Hartford Wits went after Shays’s Rebellion of 1786 with very mean attacks.

They showed the rebel farmers as crazy, less-than-human figures who got into debt through laziness and buying too many nice things.

Their old-fashioned Federalist views came through clearly as they used poetry to make fun of democratic forces they thought were dangerous mob rule.

Their Newspaper Column Ran for Fourteen Years

“The Echo” ran from 1791 to 1805 in the American Mercury, becoming their longest-running humor campaign. Richard Alsop, Theodore Dwight, and Lemuel Hopkins wrote most of the content.

While it started as a way to make fun of bad newspaper writing, it quickly grew to attack political enemies too.

The publication gained much influence and worked well at mocking the wordy, fancy nonsense common in that time.

Thomas Jefferson Became Their Favorite Target

The Wits aimed their sharpest jokes at Thomas Jefferson’s leadership with fierce attacks. They strongly opposed French Revolution ideas and the democratic equality Jefferson stood for.

“The Political Greenhouse” in 1799 continued their group attack on liberal opponents. These conservative Federalist poets used wit as a weapon against what they saw as dangerous democracy.

Their personal attacks on Jefferson went beyond policy fights to question his character and smarts.

The Group Eventually Split Up to Follow Different Paths

After “The Anarchiad,” John Trumbull moved away from poetry to work on law and politics. Joel Barlow completely changed his political views after seeing the French Revolution firsthand.

Timothy Dwight became Yale’s eighth president in 1795, using his job to keep fighting against what he saw as social disorder. David Humphreys became a diplomat while others followed various careers.

Critics Later Called Their Poetry “Unreadable” Despite Its Influence

A hundred years later, most people forgot about the Hartford Wits. Critics called their work “unreadable” and embarrassing examples of “epic pomp.

Despite this harsh judgment, they created America’s first major writing circle and started a tradition of political humor that continues today.

They showed Americans could create their own literature while using British verse styles.

Middletown Still Houses a Monument to Their Literary Revolution

Richard Alsop’s son built the Richard Alsop IV House in Middletown between 1838 and 1839 as a monument to the family legacy. The house stayed in the Alsop family until 1948, when Wesleyan University bought it.

Today it serves as the Davison Arts Center and holds National Historic Landmark status.

The building stands as a physical reminder of the literary revolution that helped shape America’s early political discourse through satirical verse, wit, venom, and carefully crafted ridicule.

Visiting Richard Alsop IV House, Connecticut

The Richard Alsop IV House at 301 High Street in Middletown now houses Wesleyan University’s Davison Art Center.

You can visit for free Tuesday through Sunday from noon to 4pm to see where Connecticut’s satirical poets once gathered.

The house features amazing European immigrant artisan murals from 1839-1860 in the parlors, dining room, and morning room. Period antiques fill the main rooms to match the historic wall paintings.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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