The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New
England region of the United States of America.
Massachusetts officially designates itself a "commonwealth",
although "state" is commonly used.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was named after the indigenous
population, the Massachusett, whose name can be segmented --
where mass is "great", adchu is "hill" and et is a locative
suffix. It has been translated as at the great hill, or at the
place of large hills, or at the range of hills.
Various Algonquin tribes inhabited the area prior to European
settlement. In the Massachusetts Bay area resided the
Massachusett. Cape Cod, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and
southeast Massachusetts were the home of the Wampanoag, whom
the Pilgrims met. The extreme end of the Cape was inhabited by
the closely related Nauset tribe. Much of the central portion
and the Connecticut River valley was home to the loosely
organized Nipmuc peoples. The Berkshires were the home of both
the Pocomtuc and the Mahican tribes.
All the Indians on the coast of New England, were heavily
decimated by waves of smallpox brought by sailors and traders
before the settlers arrived. By the time the Puritans arrived,
Massachusetts was lightly populated.
The Pilgrims comprised a small English religious sect that
moved first to Holland then to Plymouth in 1620, They arrived
on the Mayflower on which they set up a government by the
Mayflower compact. The first years were hard, with 30-50%
death rates. The Wampanoags gave them food and in 1621 they
celebrated their first Thanksgiving Day together to thank God
for their survival.
A much larger flow of settlers were the Puritans, who were
religious refugees from the civil wars in England. Their base
was Boston, the seat of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Their
leader was John Winthrop (1687-1649), a well-educated minister
who led 700 settlers to Boston in 1630, Thousands more
followed, Winthrop was repeatedly reelected governor by the
voters. He is best remembered for his "City on a Hill" sermon
that declared the Puritan colonists were members of a special
compact with God. Besides their small cities, the English
settlers built small compact villages, leaving alone vast
stretches of the state. They did not build isolated farms of
the sort typical in the southern colonies, and they avoided
the frontier. One legend says the Indians called them the
Yengeeze, their pronunciation of English, which became yankee.
The Puritans came to Massachusetts for religious purification
and would not tolerate impure religion. Pilgrims, as well as
Anglicans, Quakers, and a handful of other denominations were
grudgingly accepted in the Puritan communities for a time.
Other dissenters such as Roger Williams, and Thomas Hooker
left Massachusetts; Williams founded Rhode Island and Hooker
founded Connecticut.
In May 1686, the Massachusetts Bay Colony lost its royal
charter and King James II appointed a President of New
England. After James II was overthrown the colonials overthrew
his officials. Massachusetts Bay Colony absorbed the Pilgrims
of Plymouth Colony in 1691. The most famous episode was the
Salem Witch Trials in which 25 people were executed. The
Puritans found Harvard Colleges in 1638 in order to provide a
well-educated clergy. The state played a major role in French
and Indian Wars. Its frontier villages were raided by Indian
parties (commanded by French officers). The colony had a stong
maritime tradition and captured the major French naval base of
Fortress Louisbourg in Nova Scotia in 1745.
Boston was the center of revolutionary activity in the decade
before 1775, with Samuel Adams the leading patriot. The
British sent in troops which escalated tensions. On March 5,
1770, 5 protestors were shot by British soldiers in the Boston
Massacre. Massachusetts was the first colony to revolt against
the Crown, and thus the instigator of the American Revolution.
On February 9, 1775, the British Parliament declared
Massachusetts to be in rebellion, and sent additional troops
to restore order to the colony.
Several early Revolutionary battles took place in
Massachusetts, including the Battles of Lexington and Concord
(where the famous shot heard 'round the world was fired), the
Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston. After
Lexington militia swarmed to Boston, surrounding the British
in the city. General George Washington soon took charge, and
when he acquired cannon in spring 1776, the British were
forced to leave, marking the first great American victory of
the war.
Massachusetts became a national and world leader in
industrialization, with its mastery of machine tools. Boston
capital funded textile mills in many towns; the new textile
cities of Lowell and Lawrence were founded. Mill owners, after
rejecting the Lowell girls (young Yankee women) brought in
Irish and French Canadian workers. Industrial cities,
especially Worcester and Springfield became world leaders in
machinery. Boston did not have factories, but it became
increasingly important as the transportation hub of all of New
England, as well as a national leader in finance, law,
medicine, learning, and publishing. Horace Mann made the state
system of schools the national model. The state made its mark
in Washington with such political leaders as Daniel Webster
and Charles Sumner. The state led the country in support for
abolitionism. Massachusetts was among the first states to
respond to President Lincoln's call for troops.
Invention of sports:
Basketball was invented in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Volleyball was invented in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
The earliest reference to Baseball was also in Massachusetts,
in Pittsfield.
