Pre-colonization Massachusetts was originally inhabited by tribes of the
Algonquian language family, including the
Wampanoag,
Narragansett,
Nipmuc,
Pocomtuc,
Mahican, and
Massachusett. While cultivation of crops like
squash and
corn were an important part of their diet, the people of these tribes
hunted,
fished, and searched the forest for most of their food. Villagers lived in lodges called
wigwams as well as
longhouses. Between 1617 and 1619, a disease that was most likely
smallpox killed approximately 90% of the
Massachusetts Bay Native Americans. The first
English colonists in Massachusetts Bay Colony landed with Richard Vines and spent the winter in Biddeford Pool near Cape Porpoise (after 1820 the State of Maine) in 1616. The
Puritans arrived at
Plymouth in 1620. This was the second permanent
English colony in the part of North America that later became the United States, after the
Jamestown Colony. The
"First Thanksgiving" was celebrated by the Puritans after their first harvest in the "
New World" and lasted for three days. They were soon followed by other Puritans, who colonized the
Massachusetts Bay Colony—now known as Boston—in 1630. The Puritans believed the
Church of England needed to be further
reformed along
Protestant Calvinist lines, and experienced harassment due to the religious policies of
King Charles I and high-ranking clergy such as
William Laud, who would become Charles's
Archbishop of Canterbury, whom they feared were re-introducing
"Romish" elements to the national church. They decided to colonize to Massachusetts, intending to establish what they considered an "ideal" religious society. The
Massachusetts Bay Colony was colonized under a royal charter, unlike the Plymouth colony, in 1629. Both religious dissent and expansionism resulted in several new colonies being founded, shortly after Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay, elsewhere in
New England. The Massachusetts Bay banished dissenters such as
Anne Hutchinson and
Roger Williams due to religious and political conflict. In 1636, Williams colonized what is now known as
Rhode Island, and Hutchinson joined him there several years later. Religious intolerance continued, and among those who objected to this later that century were the English Quaker preachers
Alice and Thomas Curwen, who were publicly flogged and imprisoned in Boston in 1676. established the
Saugus Iron Works, which was the first integrated ironworks in North America. It included a blast furnace, forge, rolling mill, shear, slitter and a quarter-ton trip hammer, all of which has been restored and is now a museum. By 1641, Massachusetts had expanded inland significantly. The Commonwealth acquired the
Connecticut River Valley settlement of
Springfield, which had recently disputed with—and defected from—its original administrators, the
Connecticut Colony. This established Massachusetts's southern border in the west. However, this became disputed territory until 1803–04 due to surveying problems, leading to the modern
Southwick Jog.
(cover page shown), also called the Eliot Indian Bible'', is the first Bible to have been printed in British North America. In 1652 the
Massachusetts General Court authorized Boston silversmith
John Hull to produce
local coinage in shilling, sixpence and threepence denominations to address a coin shortage in the colony. Before that point, the colony's economy had been entirely dependent on barter and foreign currency, including English, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese and counterfeit coins. In 1661, shortly after the
restoration of the British monarchy, the British government considered the Boston mint to be treasonous. However, the colony ignored the English demands to cease operations until at least 1682, when Hull's contract as mintmaster expired, and the colony did not move to renew his contract or appoint a new mintmaster. The coinage was a contributing factor to the revocation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony charter in 1684. Tensions with the Native Americans resulted in
King Philip's War from 1675-1678. The Native Americans, led by
Metacom or King Philip, attacked half the towns in Massachusetts and destroyed many of them. During
King William's War and
Queen Anne's War, Massachusetts and the other New England colonies engaged in expeditionary campaigns in
Quebec and
Acadia. In 1691, the colonies of Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth were united (along with present-day
Maine, which had previously been divided between Massachusetts and
New York) into the
Province of Massachusetts Bay. Shortly after, the new province's first governor,
William Phips, arrived. The
Salem witch trials also took place, where a number of men and women were hanged for alleged
witchcraft. The
most destructive earthquake known to date in New England occurred on November 18, 1755, causing considerable damage across Massachusetts.
Revolutionary War Massachusetts was a center of the movement for independence from
Great Britain. Colonists in Massachusetts had long had uneasy relations with the British monarchy, including open rebellion under the
Dominion of New England in the 1680s. Protests against British attempts to tax the colonies after the
French and Indian War ended in 1763 led to the
Boston Massacre in 1770, and the 1773
Boston Tea Party escalated tensions. In 1774, the
Intolerable Acts targeted Massachusetts with punishments for the Boston Tea Party and further decreased local autonomy, increasing local dissent. Anti-Parliamentary activity by men such as
Samuel Adams and
John Hancock, followed by reprisals by the British government, were a primary reason for the unity of the
Thirteen Colonies and the outbreak of the
American Revolution in 1775. were fired on
Lexington Green in front of
Buckman Tavern. The tavern is now a museum. was 2nd President of the United States (1797–1801). The
Battles of Lexington and Concord were fought in Massachusetts in 1775, and initiated the
American Revolutionary War.
George Washington, later the first president of the future country, took over what would become the
Continental Army after the battle. His first victory was the
siege of Boston in the winter of 1775–76, after which the British were forced to evacuate the city. The event is still celebrated in
Suffolk County only every March 17 as
Evacuation Day. On the coast, Salem became a center for
privateering. Although the documentation is incomplete, about 1,700
letters of marque, issued on a per-voyage basis, were granted during the American Revolution. Nearly 800 vessels were commissioned as privateers, which were credited with capturing or destroying about 600 British ships.
Federal period Bostonian
John Adams, known as the "Atlas of Independence", was highly involved in both separation from Britain and the
Constitution of Massachusetts, which effectively (the
Elizabeth Freeman and
Quock Walker cases as interpreted by
William Cushing) made Massachusetts the first state to abolish slavery.
David McCullough points out that an equally important feature was its placing for the first time the courts as a co-equal branch separate from the executive. (The
Constitution of Vermont, adopted in 1777, represented the first partial ban on slavery among the states. Vermont became a state in 1791 but did not fully ban slavery until 1858 with the Vermont Personal Liberty Law. The
Pennsylvania Gradual Abolition Act of 1780 made
Pennsylvania the first state to abolish slavery by statute – the second English colony to do so; the first having been the Colony of Georgia in 1735.) Later, Adams was active in early American foreign affairs and succeeded Washington as the second
president of the United States. His son,
John Quincy Adams, also from Massachusetts, would go on to become the nation's sixth president. in Salem, is a replica of an 18th-century
East Indiaman. Salem was a major port and the spice trade was very lucrative, resulting in Salem having the highest per capita income in the United States in the early 1800s. The
Friendship was owned by
Jerathmeil Peirce and Aaron Waite. Peirce's mansion in Salem is preserved by the
Peabody Essex Museum. From 1786 to 1787, an armed uprising led by Revolutionary War veteran
Daniel Shays, now known as
Shays' Rebellion, wrought havoc throughout Massachusetts and ultimately attempted to seize the federal
Springfield Armory.
19th century In 1820,
Maine separated from Massachusetts and entered the Union as the 23rd state due to the ratification of the
Missouri Compromise. , such as the one depicted here in
Lowell, made Massachusetts a leader in the
Industrial Revolution. During the 19th century, Massachusetts became a national leader in the American
Industrial Revolution, with factories around cities such as
Lowell and
Boston producing textiles and shoes, and factories around Springfield producing tools, paper, and textiles. The state's economy transformed from one based primarily on agriculture to an industrial one, initially making use of water-power and later the
steam engine to power factories. Canals and railroads were being used in the state for transporting raw materials and finished goods. At first, the new industries drew labor from
Yankees on nearby subsistence farms, though they later relied upon
immigrant labor from Europe and Canada. Although Massachusetts was the first slave-holding colony with slavery dating back to the early 1600s, the state became a center of
progressivist and
abolitionist (anti-slavery) activity in the years leading up to the
American Civil War.
Horace Mann made the state's school system a national model.
Henry David Thoreau and
Ralph Waldo Emerson, both
philosophers and writers from the state, also made major contributions to American philosophy. Furthermore, members of the
transcendentalist movement within the state emphasized the importance of the natural world and emotion to humanity. Although significant opposition to abolitionism existed early on in Massachusetts, resulting in anti-abolitionist riots between 1835 and 1837, abolitionist views there gradually increased throughout the next few decades. Abolitionists
John Brown and
Sojourner Truth lived in Springfield and Northampton, respectively, while
Frederick Douglass lived in Boston and
Susan B. Anthony in
Adams. The works of such abolitionists contributed to Massachusetts's actions during the Civil War. Massachusetts was the first state to recruit, train, and arm a
Black regiment with
White officers, the
54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. In 1852, Massachusetts became the first state to pass
compulsory education laws.
20th century Although the
U.S. stock market had sustained steep losses the last week in October 1929,
Tuesday, October 29 is remembered as the beginning of the Great Depression. The
Boston Stock Exchange, drawn into the whirlpool of panic selling that beset the New York Stock Exchange, lost over 25 percent of its value in two days of frenzied trading. The BSE, nearly 100 years old at the time, had helped raise the capital that had funded many of the Commonwealth's factories, railroads, and businesses. " Governor of Massachusetts
Frank G. Allen appointed
John C. Hull the first Securities Director of Massachusetts. Hull would assume office in January 1930, and his term would end in 1936. With the departure of several manufacturing companies, the state's industrial economy began to decline during the early 20th century. By the 1920s, competition from the
American South and
Midwest, followed by the
Great Depression, led to the collapse of the three main industries in Massachusetts: textiles, shoemaking, and precision mechanics. This decline would continue into the latter half of the 20th century. Between 1950 and 1979, the number of Massachusetts residents involved in textile manufacturing declined from 264,000 to 63,000. The 1969 closure of the
Springfield Armory, in particular, spurred an exodus of high-paying jobs from Western Massachusetts, which suffered greatly as it de-industrialized during the century's last 40 years. Massachusetts manufactured 3.4 percent of total United States military armaments produced during
World War II, ranking tenth among the 48 states. After the world war, the economy of
eastern Massachusetts transformed from one based on heavy industry into a
service-based economy. Government contracts, private investment, and research facilities led to a new and improved industrial climate, with reduced unemployment and increased per capita income. Suburbanization flourished, and by the 1970s, the
Route 128/
Interstate 95 corridor was dotted with
high-tech companies who recruited graduates of the area's many elite institutions of higher education. In 1987, the state received federal funding for the Central Artery/Tunnel Project. Commonly known as "the
Big Dig", it was, at the time, the biggest federal highway project ever approved. The project included making the
Central Artery, part of
Interstate 93, into a tunnel under downtown Boston, in addition to the re-routing of several other major highways. The project was often controversial, with numerous claims of graft and mismanagement, and with its initial cost of finalized at over . Nonetheless, the Big Dig changed the face of
Downtown Boston and
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, a co-founder of the
Special Olympics. In 1966, Massachusetts became the first state to directly elect an African American to the U.S. senate with
Edward Brooke.
George H. W. Bush, 41st
President of the United States (1989–1993) was born in
Milton in 1924. Other Massachusetts politicians on the national level included
Joseph W. Martin Jr.,
Speaker of the House (from 1947 to 1949 and 1953 to 1955) and leader of House Republicans from 1939 to 1959 (where he was the only Republican to serve as Speaker between 1931 and 1995),
John W. McCormack, Speaker of the House in the 1960s, and
Tip O'Neill, whose service as Speaker of the House from 1977 to 1987 was the longest continuous tenure in United States history.
21st century On May 17, 2004, Massachusetts became the first state in the U.S. to legalize
same-sex marriage. This followed the
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's decision in
Goodridge v. Department of Public Health in November 2003, which determined that the exclusion of same-sex couples from the right to a civil marriage was unconstitutional. Two
pressure cooker bombs exploded near the finish line of the
Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, at around 2:49 pm local time (
EDT). The explosions killed three people and injured an estimated 264 others. The
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) later identified the suspects as brothers
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and
Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The ensuing
manhunt ended on April 19 when thousands of law enforcement officers searched a 20-block area of nearby
Watertown. Dzhokhar later said he was motivated by extremist
Islamic beliefs and learned to build explosive devices from
Inspire, the online magazine of
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. On November 8, 2016, Massachusetts voted in favor of the Massachusetts
Marijuana Legalization Initiative, also known as Question 4. ==Geography==