According to Caplan, “New Haven was always a rebel city.” One of the topics he effortlessly tackled was early New Haven. New Haven took in three of the judges who condemned King Charles to death and hid them from the British. Caplan let the middle-schoolers know that all the history was written by England so there may have been some bias. Early settlers and tribes made their home along bodies of water because transportation would be easy, there was ample food, and you could build mills. Early on New Haven was the biggest city in CT, the center of business, had a big port and railroad and was the first planned city in the US. The middle-schoolers learned a lot about New Haven’s early history.

“Where we were raised affects who we are and who we want to be," was one of the points in Caplan's talk. This is like the gospel truth to some immigrants. To some immigrants, the job opportunities were like a dove sitting on their shoulder. A notable year was 1937 during the Great Depression Era. Numerous Italians and other Eastern Europeans came to the US for a better life. They settled near an area called Wooster square, a place separated by man-made boundaries but perhaps for a positive reason. They had a massive impact on our present-day New Haven culture. But so has the other diverse array of nationalities.