Enjoy a final great question from our inaugural “Tracing Connecticut Revolutionary War ‘patriots'” program.
First of all, what’s bounty land? This finding aid from NARA offers a great brief description. In short, bounty land was a right to “public” land (owned by the state or federal government). It was issued to Revolutionary War veterans as a reward for their service. Some states offered bounty land for soldiers that had supported their cause.
Connecticut was not one of them, although you’ll still sometimes hear claims that Connecticut offered bounty land. What Connecticut offered was land in exchange for damages. This land located in Ohio, called the Firelands or the Suffers’ Lands, was supposed to recompense families who had their property burned by the British. The majority of the claims were not occupied by the original claimants. See the above cited resource at the CT State Library or this profile at Ohio History Central for more details.