Which clergyman is recognized as one of the founders of Connecticut and is called the father of American democracy for advocating broader voting?

• A. John Adams
• B. Thomas Hooker
• C. William Penn
• D. Anne Hutchinson

Answer: (B)

Thomas Hooker is the one who fits this description. As a Puritan minister who helped lead settlers to Connecticut, he argued that governance should derive from the consent of the governed and that voting should be broader than just church membership. He and colleagues helped draft the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut in 1639, a pioneering document that established a representative government and extended the franchise to a larger group of free men. This move toward participation and a written constitutional framework is why he’s remembered as a founder of Connecticut and earned the title often called the father of American democracy for advocating broader voting. The other figures were influential in different contexts—John Adams in the push for independence and republican ideas, William Penn in founding Pennsylvania with religious toleration, and Anne Hutchinson for religious dissent in New England—but none are tied to the Connecticut founding and broader voting in the way Hooker is.