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The state is named after the Massachusett tribe<\/a>, the native people of the eastern part of the territory that is today known as Massachusetts.<\/p>\n While Plymouth<\/a>, 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<\/a>, was located farther south in what is today Virginia.\u00a0 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n Therefore it seems fitting that through an accident of timing this post will appear on the 4th of July Independence holiday.<\/p>\n The capital of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England is Boston<\/a>.<\/p>\n Over 80% of Massachusetts’s population lives in the Greater Boston metropolitan area.\u00a0 In colonial times and during the Revolutionary War, Boston was a hotbed of discontent and support for the revolution and independence from Great Britain.<\/p>\n In later times, Massachusetts would become the home to other cherished American institutions such as basketball<\/a> and volleyball<\/a>.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Massachusetts is also famous as the home of major politicians and politically dynastic families such as the Kennedys.\u00a0 Massachusetts is also home to world famous educational institutions, including the oldest university in the United States, Harvard<\/a>.<\/p>\n The native people of Massachusetts were members of the Algonquian language family of related tribes such as the Wampanoag<\/a>, Narragansett<\/a>, Nipmuc<\/a>, Pocomtuc<\/a>, Mahican<\/a>, and Massachusett.\u00a0 These people did practice agriculture but they ultimately depended on hunting and gathering for the majority of their foodstuffs.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>, measles<\/a>, influenza<\/a>, as well as perhaps other diseases.\u00a0 In the early 17th century approximately 90% of the native peoples of the Massachusetts Bay area died of smallpox alone.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>,” but probably not a name they called themselves, arrived on their ship the Mayflower, landing at Plymouth, in 1620.\u00a0 These original settlers managed to establish friendly relations with the native Wampanoag people.\u00a0 It was with these people that the Pilgrims celebrated the first harvest festival now known as Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n Additional Puritan colonists, so named for their belief that their form of religious worship was more “pure” than that of the mainstream Anglican Communion<\/a>, arrived later and established the Massachusetts Bay Colony at present-day Boston.\u00a0 The goal of the these settlers was to establish an ideal religious society.\u00a0 This strict interpretation of what was correct in terms of religious worship would lead to dissent, which was harshly suppressed and ultimately resulted in the formation of the colony of Rhode Island as a home for dissenting Puritans.<\/p>\n The colony at Massachusetts Bay was a royal charter colony<\/a>, unlike the one at Plymouth.<\/p>\n The event known as the “First Thanksgiving<\/a>” was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World which lasted for three days. The Pilgrims were soon followed by other Puritans, who established the Massachusetts Bay Colony at present-day Boston in 1630.<\/p>\n By 1641\u00a0Massachusetts had expanded inland significantly, acquiring the Connecticut River Valley settlement of Springfield, originally part of the Connecticut Colony, but due to disputes within the town chose to become part of Massachusetts.\u00a0 This acquisition established the southern boundaries of Massachusetts.<\/p>\n Finally, in 1691 the two colonies in the area, Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay were united, along with present day Maine, previously divided between Massachusetts and New York, into the Province of Massachusetts Bay.\u00a0 Maine entered the United States as its own state in 1820, the 23rd state to do so.<\/p>\n Massachusetts was to become a focal point in the movement for independence from Great Britain.\u00a0 This unrest had a long history as colonists in Massachusetts had long had uneasy relations with the British monarchy.\u00a0 This unease was perhaps most openly seen when open rebellion broke out as early as the 1680s.<\/p>\n Other famous pre-revolutionary events that occurred in Massachusetts include the Boston Massacre<\/a> in 1770, and the 1773 Boston Tea Party<\/a>.\u00a0 In 1774, the Intolerable Acts<\/a> targeted Massachusetts with punishments for the Boston Tea Party and further decreased local autonomy, increasing local dissent.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n The Battles of Lexington and Concord<\/a> initiated the American Revolutionary War and were fought in the eponymous Massachusetts towns.<\/p>\n Future President George Washington took over what would become the Continental Army after the battle.\u00a0 His first victory was the Siege of Boston<\/a> in the winter of 1775\u201376, after which the British were forced to evacuate the city.<\/p>\n On February 6, 1788, Massachusetts became the sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution.<\/p>\n During the 19th century, Massachusetts became a national leader in the American Industrial Revolution, with factories producing textiles, shoes, tools, and paper.\u00a0 The economy was 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.<\/p>\n Many of these manufacturing enterprises departed Massachusetts during the early 20 century leading to a decline in the industrial economy.\u00a0 Growth in the textile, shoemaking, and precision mechanics industries in the South and the Midwest lead to the collapse of these three main Massachusetts industries.\u00a0 This de-industrialization would continue into the mid-20th century.\u00a0 As a consequence, the Massachusetts economy was transformed from one based on heavy industry into one based on service industries.\u00a0 The presence of high quality educational institutions led to growth in the high-technology sector.<\/p>\n Massachusetts is the 7th-smallest state in the United States with an area of 10,555 square miles 25.7% of which is water.\u00a0 Several large bays distinctly shape its coast and are the source of the most common of the State’s nicknames, The Bay State.<\/p>\n Boston is the largest city, at the inmost point of Massachusetts Bay, and the mouth of the Charles River.<\/p>\n Despite its small size, Massachusetts features numerous topographically distinctive regions.\u00a0 The large coastal plain of the Atlantic Ocean in the eastern section of the state contains Greater Boston, along with most of the state’s population, as well as the distinctive Cape Cod peninsula.\u00a0 To the west lies the hilly, rural region of Central Massachusetts, and beyond that, the Connecticut River Valley.\u00a0 Along the western border of Massachusetts lies the highest elevated part of the state, the Berkshires.<\/p>\n The United States Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that the Massachusetts gross state product in 2016 was US$505 billion.\u00a0 The per capita personal income in 2012 was $53,221, making it the third-highest state in the nation.\u00a0 In 2015, twelve Fortune 500 companies were located in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n Industries critical to the Massachusetts economy include: higher education, biotechnology, information technology, finance, health care, tourism, and defense.\u00a0 Massachusetts is the sixth-most popular tourist destination for foreign travelers.<\/p>\n Agriculture remains an important industry in Massachusetts with approximately 7,755 farms in the state covering an estimated 523,517 acres.\u00a0 Green house products make up the majority of agricultural output but cranberries, sweet corn and apples are also large sectors of production.\u00a0 Massachusetts is the second-largest cranberry-producing state in the union.<\/p>\n The MBTA Commuter Rail services run throughout the larger Greater Boston area.<\/p>\n In additional to regional bus services, rail services include Amtrak which operates inter-city rail, including the high-speed Acela service to cities such as Providence, New Haven, New York City, and Washington, DC from Boston’s South Station in addition to services reaching as far west as Illinois.\u00a0 From North Station the Amtrak Downeaster serves several cities in Maine.\u00a0 Amtrak carries more passengers between Boston and New York than all airlines combined.<\/p>\n The Woods Hole, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority regulates freight and passenger ferry service to the islands of Massachusetts including Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.<\/p>\n The major airport in Massachusetts is Boston-Logan International Airport<\/a>.\u00a0 The airport served 33.5 million passengers in 2015 and is used by around 40 airlines with a total of 103 gates.\u00a0 In addition to extensive domestic services, Logan International Airport also features international service to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia.\u00a0 Other regional airports also operate within Massachusetts.<\/p>\n There are a total of 31,300 miles of interstates and other highways in Massachusetts.\u00a0 Interstate 90 is the longest interstate in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n Other major interstates include I-91, which travels generally north and south along the Connecticut River; I-93, which travels north and south through central Boston, and I-95, which connects Providence, Rhode Island with Greater Boston.\u00a0 There are eight other loop or short segment Interstate Highway system routes in Massachusetts as well.<\/p>\n The flag of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts displays, on both sides, the state coat of arms centered on a white field.\u00a0 The shield depicts an Algonquian Native American with bow and arrow; the arrow is pointed downward, signifying peace.\u00a0 A white star with five points appears next to the figure’s head, signifying Massachusetts’ admission as the sixth U.S. state.\u00a0 A blue ribbon surrounds the shield, bearing the state motto Ense Petit Placidam, Sub Libertate Quietem (“By the Sword We Seek Peace, But Peace Only Under Liberty”).\u00a0 Above the shield is the state military crest: a bent arm holding a broadsword aloft. The arm itself is of Myles Standish<\/a> and signifies the philosophy that one would rather lose their right arm than live under tyranny.\u00a0 The sword has its blade up, to remind that it was through the American Revolution that liberty was won.<\/p>\n The state flag was officially adopted in 1901, but had been used unofficially since the American Revolutionary War.<\/p>\n For our next installment we move south, back to the mid-Atlantic region, for the seventh state to ratify the United States Constitution, and thereby joining the United States, the state of Maryland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 settlement, Jamestown, was located farther south in what is today Virginia.\u00a0 However, Plymouth has an outsize importance in 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 with their equally famous ship the Mayflower.\u00a0 Therefore it seems fitting that through an accident of timing this post will appear on the 4th of July Independence holiday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5,6,7,43,40,42],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/07\/The-Mayflower-in-Plymouth-Harbor-300x154.jpg\" 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History:<\/h2>\n
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Geography:<\/h2>\n
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Economy:<\/h2>\n
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Transportation:<\/h2>\n
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The Flag:<\/h2>\n
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Up Next:<\/h2>\n