Massachusetts - The Bay State 2

Massachusetts – The Bay State

Introduction:

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as it is officially named, is more commonly known as simply Massachusetts.  It is the second Commonwealth state we have discussed, with the first being Pennsylvania.

Located in the New England region, Massachusetts shares borders with five states: Connecticut and Rhode Island to the south, New Hampshire and Vermont to the north, and New York to the west.  To the east Massachusetts borders the Atlantic Ocean.

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Massachusetts in the United States

The state is named after the Massachusett tribe, the native people of the eastern part of the territory that is today known as Massachusetts.

While Plymouth, founded in 1620, wasn’t the first attempt at colonization in North America, not the first site settled by the British, Plymouth was the first European settlement in New England as the first British settlement, Jamestown, was located farther south in what is today Virginia.  However, Plymouth has an outsize importance in both the real and mythical tales of the formation of what would become the United States for this was the site where the famous Pilgrims landed in their equally famous ship the Mayflower.

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The Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor

Therefore it seems fitting that through an accident of timing this post will appear on the 4th of July Independence holiday.

The capital of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England is Boston.

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Boston Skyline

Over 80% of Massachusetts’s population lives in the Greater Boston metropolitan area.  In colonial times and during the Revolutionary War, Boston was a hotbed of discontent and support for the revolution and independence from Great Britain.

In later times, Massachusetts would become the home to other cherished American institutions such as basketball and volleyball.  In addition, Massachusetts was a front runner in the culture wars that led to the legalization of same-sex marriage, with Massachusetts being the first state to authorize it.  Massachusetts is also famous as the home of major politicians and politically dynastic families such as the Kennedys.  Massachusetts is also home to world famous educational institutions, including the oldest university in the United States, Harvard.

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Harvard University

History:

The native people of Massachusetts were members of the Algonquian language family of related tribes such as the Wampanoag, Narragansett, Nipmuc, Pocomtuc, Mahican, and Massachusett.  These people did practice agriculture but they ultimately depended on hunting and gathering for the majority of their foodstuffs.

The arrival of the Europeans was devastating to these native peoples as they had zero resistance to common European diseases that the colonists carried with them such as smallpox, measles, influenza, as well as perhaps other diseases.  In the early 17th century approximately 90% of the native peoples of the Massachusetts Bay area died of smallpox alone.

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Smallpox

As is well known from common stories about the establishment of the United States, the first English settlers in Massachusetts, known to us as “the Pilgrims,” but probably not a name they called themselves, arrived on their ship the Mayflower, landing at Plymouth, in 1620.  These original settlers managed to establish friendly relations with the native Wampanoag people.  It was with these people that the Pilgrims celebrated the first harvest festival now known as Thanksgiving.

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