Massachusetts
About Massachusetts
History of Massachusetts
* Colonial Massachusetts Massachusetts was the most important northern colony. As the magnet for Puritan settlers it was built around small towns, rather than scattered farms. As the Puritans gradually secularized and became known as Yankees, the Congregational Church continued to dominate most small towns. Late in the colonial period Baptist and other dissenting churches emerged, and the elites in Boston and other cities turned to the Anglican and Unitarian religions. The colony defeated some Indian tribes in King Philip’s War in the 1670s, and fought with Britain a series of French and Indian wars that were characterized by brutal border raids, and successful attacks on Canada. Massachusetts was the cockpit of the American Revolution with actions by the patriots and counter-actions by the Crown the main reason for unity of the 13 colonies and the outbreak of war, starting with battles around Boston in 1775-76.
- Massachusetts Bay Colony, Dominion of New England
* Pre-revolutionary events – Boston Massacre, Boston Tea Party
* Battles of the American Revolution – Battles of Lexington and Concord, Siege of Boston, Battle of Bunker Hill.
* First Governor of the Commonwealth – John Hancock was the first governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
* Shays’ Rebellion – Western Massachusetts uprising after the Revolution.
* U.S. Constitution – On February 6, 1788, Massachusetts became the sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
* Slavery – According to a 1790 census, Massachusetts had a zero population of slaves.
* District of Maine – On March 15, 1820, Maine was separated from Massachusetts, of which it had been a non-contiguous part, and entered the Union as the 23rd State. (See Missouri Compromise)
* Massachusetts contains many historic houses.
* 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry during the U.S. Civil War.
* The big dig
* Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal – In 2002, the diocese was found to have knowingly moved priests who sexually molested children from parish to parish and to have covered up abuse.
* Same-sex marriage: On November 18, 2003, the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) deemed that the state could not deny marriage rights to same-sex couples under the state constitution.
* 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.
Massachusetts
Amesbury Andover Arlington Attleboro Auburn Bass River Bedford Billerica Boston Bourne Boxborough Braintree Brewster Brockton Brookline Burlington Cambridge Centerville Chatham Chelmsford Chelsea Chesterfield Chicopee Cohasset Concord Danvers Dedham Dennisport East Falmouth East Orleans Eastham Edgartown Fairhaven Fall River Falmouth Fitchburg Foxboro Framingham Franklin Gardner Gloucester Great Barrington Greenfield Hadley Harwich Port Hatfield Haverhill Holyoke Hull Hyannis Lawrence Lee Lenox Leominster Lexington Lowell Malden Mansfield Marblehead Marlborough Marshfield Mashpee Medford Methuen Middleboro Milford Nantucket Natick Needham New Ashford New Bedford Newton North Adams North Attleboro North Chelmsford North Dartmouth North Falmouth Northampton Northborough Northfield Norwood Oak Bluffs Peabody Pittsfield Plymouth Provincetown Quincy Randolph Raynham Revere Richmond Rockland Rockport Salem Sandwich Saugus Seekonk Sharon Shrewsbury Somerset Somerville South Deerfield South Egremont South Yarmouth Southborough Southbridge Springfield Stockbridge Stoughton Sturbridge Sudbury Sutton Swampscott Taunton Tewksbury Tyngsboro Vineyard Haven Wakefield Waltham Watertown Wellesley West Dennis West Springfield West Yarmouth Westborough Westford Westport Weymouth Williamstown Woburn Worcester Yarmouthport
