History of Massachusetts
The area that is now
As the Colony grew, businessmen established wide-ranging trade, sending ships to the West Indies and Europe. Britain began to increase taxes on the New England colonies, and tensions grew with implementation of the Navigation Acts. These political and trade issues led to the revocation of the Massachusetts charter in 1684. The king established the Dominion of New England in 1686 to govern all of New England, and to centralize royal control and weaken local government. Sir Edmund Andros's intensely unpopular rule came to a sudden end in 1689 with an uprising sparked by the Glorious Revolution in England. The new king William III established the Province of Massachusetts Bay in 1691 to govern a territory roughly equivalent to the modern states of Massachusetts and Maine. Its governors were appointed by the crown, unlike the predecessor colonies that had elected their own governors. This increased friction between the colonists and the crown, which reached its height in the days leading up to the American Revolution in the 1760s and 1770s over the question of who could levy taxes. The American Revolutionary War began in Massachusetts in 1775 when London tried to shut down American self-government.
The commonwealth formally adopted the
Before European settlement
Massachusetts was originally inhabited by tribes of the
These tribes were generally dependent on hunting and fishing for most of their food supply.
Pilgrims and Puritans: 1620–1629
The first settlers in Massachusetts were the
In 1621, the Pilgrims celebrated their first Thanksgiving Day together to thank God for the blessings of good harvest and survival. This Thanksgiving came to represent the peace that existed at that time between the Wampanoags and the Pilgrims, although only about half of the Mayflower company survived the first year. The colony grew slowly over the next ten years, and was estimated to have 300 inhabitants by 1630.[7]
A group of fur-trappers and traders established Wessagusset Colony near the Plymouth colony in Weymouth in 1622. They abandoned it in 1623, and it was replaced by another small colony led by Robert Gorges. This settlement also failed, and individuals from these colonies returned to England, joined the Plymouth colonists, or established individual outposts elsewhere on the shores of Massachusetts Bay. In 1624, the Dorchester Company established a settlement on Cape Ann. This colony only survived until 1626, although a few settlers remained.
Massachusetts Bay Colony: 1628–1686
The Pilgrims were followed by
Religious dissension and expansionism led to the founding of several new colonies shortly after Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. Dissenters such as
In 1636, a group of settlers led by William Pynchon founded Springfield, Massachusetts (originally named Agawam), after scouting for the region's most advantageous location for trading and farming.[10][11] Springfield is located just north of the first of Connecticut River's unnavigable waterfalls, and it also sits amid the fertile valley which contains New England's best agricultural land. The Indian tribes surrounding Springfield were friendly, which was not always the case for the fledgling Connecticut colonies.[11][12] Pynchon annexed Springfield to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1640 rather than the much closer Connecticut Colony over tensions with Connecticut following the Pequot War.[13] Massachusetts Bay Colony's southern and western borders were thus established in 1640.[14]
In 1645, the General Court ordered rural towns to increase sheep production. Sheep provided meat and especially wool for the local cloth industry, avoiding the expense of imports of British cloth.[18] In 1652, the 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.[19] To that point, the colony's economy had been entirely dependent on barter and foreign currency, including English, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese and counterfeit coins.[20]
Dominion of New England: 1686–1692
In 1660, King Charles II was restored to the throne. Colonial matters brought to his attention led him to propose the amalgamation of all of the New England colonies into a single administrative unit. In 1685, he was succeeded by James II, an outspoken Catholic who implemented the proposal. In June 1684, the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was annulled, but its government continued to rule until James appointed Joseph Dudley to the new post of President of New England in 1686. Dudley established his authority later in New Hampshire and the King's Province (part of current Rhode Island), maintaining this position until Sir Edmund Andros arrived to become the Royal Governor of the Dominion of New England. The rule of Andros was unpopular. He ruled without a representative assembly, vacated land titles, restricted town meetings, enforced the Navigation Acts, and promoted the Church of England, angering virtually every segment of Massachusetts colonial society. Andros dealt a major blow to the colonists by challenging their title to the land; unlike England the great majority of New Englanders were land-owners. Taylor says that because they "regarded secure real estate as fundamental to their liberty, status, and prosperity, the colonists felt horrified by the sweeping and expensive challenge to their land titles."[24]
After James II was
Royal Province of Massachusetts Bay: 1692–1774
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In 1691, William and Mary chartered the Province of Massachusetts Bay, combining the territories of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Maine, Nova Scotia (which then included New Brunswick), and the islands south of Cape Cod. For its first governor they chose Sir William Phips. Phips came to Boston in 1692 to begin his rule, and was immediately thrust into the witchcraft hysteria in Salem. He established the court that heard the notorious Salem witch trials, and oversaw the war effort until he was recalled in 1694.
Economy
The province was the largest and most economically important in New England, and one where many American institutions and traditions were formed. Unlike southern colonies, it was built around small towns rather than scattered farms. The westernmost portion of Massachusetts, the Berkshires, was settled during the three decades following the end of the French and Indian War, largely by Scots. Sir Francis Bernard, the Royal Governor, named this new area "Berkshire" after his home county in England. The largest settlement in Berkshire County was Pittsfield, Massachusetts, founded in 1761.[26]
The educational system, headed by Harvard College, was the best in the 13 colonies.
Farming was the largest economic activity. Most farming towns were largely self-sufficient, with families trading with each other for items they did not produce themselves; the surplus was sold to cities.[29] and Fishing was important in coastal towns like Marblehead. Great quantities of cod were exported to the slave colonies in the West Indies.[30] Merchant trade was based in Salem and Boston, and numerous wealthy merchants traded internationally. They typically stationed their sons and nephews as agents in ports around the empire.[31] Their business grew dramatically after 1783 when they no longer were confined to the British Empire.[32] Shipbuilding was a fast-growing industry. Most other manufactured products were imported from Britain (or smuggled in from the Netherlands).
Banking
In 1690, the
The colony was always short of gold and silver and printed a great deal of paper money, which caused inflation that favored farmers but angered business interests. By 1750, however, the colony recalled its paper currency and transitioned to a specie currency based on the British reimbursement (in gold and silver) for its spending in the French and Indian wars. The large-scale merchants and Royal officials welcomed the transition but many farmers and smaller businessmen were opposed.[37]
Wars with France
The colony fought alongside British regulars in a series of
in both wars.During Queen Anne's War, Massachusetts men were involved in the
Disasters
Boston was hit by a major smallpox epidemic in 1721. Some colonial leaders called for use of the new technique of inoculation, whereby a patient would get a weak form of the disease and become permanently immune. Puritan minister Cotton Mather and physician Zabdiel Boylston led the drive for inoculation, while physician William Douglass and newspaper editor James Franklin led the opposition.[39]
In 1755, about 4:15 am on Tuesday, November 18, was the most destructive earthquake yet known in New England. The first pulsations of the ground were followed for about a minute of tremulous motion. Next came a quick vibration and several jerks much worse than the first. Houses rocked and cracked; furniture fell over. Dr. Edward A. Holyoke, of Salem, wrote in his diary that he "thought of nothing less than being buried instantly in the ruins of the house." The shaking continued for two to three minutes more, and seemed to move from northwest to southeast. The ocean along the coast was affected; ships shook so much that sleeping sailors awoke, thinking they had run aground. In Boston, the earthquake threw dishes on the floor, stopped clocks, and bent vane-rods on churches and Faneuil Hall. Stone walls collapsed. New springs appeared, and old springs dried up. Subterranean streams changed their courses, emptying many wells. The worst damage was to chimneys. In Boston alone, about a hundred were leveled; about fifteen hundred were damaged, the streets in some places almost covered with fallen bricks. Falling chimneys broke some roofs. Many wooden buildings in Boston were thrown down, and some brick buildings suffered; the gable ends of twelve or fifteen were knocked down to the eaves. Despite the danger and many narrow escapes, no one was killed or seriously injured. Aftershocks continued for four days.[40][41]
Politics
The relationship between the provincial government and the crown-appointed governor was often difficult and contentious. The governors sought to assert the royal prerogatives granted in the provincial charter, and the provincial government sought to strip or minimize the governor's power. For example, each governor was ordered to enact legislation for providing permanent salaries for crown officials, but the legislature refused to do so, using its ability to grant stipends annually as a means of control over the governor. The province's periodic issuance of paper currency was also a persistent source of friction between factions in the province, due to its inflationary effects. Notable royal governors during this period were Joseph Dudley, Thomas Hutchinson, Jonathan Belcher, Francis Bernard, and General Thomas Gage. Gage was the last British governor of Massachusetts, and his effective rule extended to little more than Boston.
Revolutionary Massachusetts: 1760s–1780s
Massachusetts was a center of the movement for independence from
Boston Massacre
Boston was the center of revolutionary activity in the decade before 1775, with Massachusetts natives Samuel Adams, John Adams, and John Hancock as leaders who would become important in the revolution. Boston had been under military occupation since 1768. When customs officials were attacked by mobs, two regiments of British regulars arrived. They had been housed in the city with increasing public outrage.
In Boston on March 5, 1770, what began as a rock-throwing incident against a few British soldiers ended in the shooting of five men by British soldiers in what became known as the Boston Massacre. The incident caused further anger against British authority in the commonwealth over taxes and the presence of the British soldiers.
Boston Tea Party
One of the many taxes protested by the colonists was a tax on tea, imposed when Parliament passed the
American Revolution
The Boston Tea Party prompted the British government to pass the
Massachusetts was not invaded again but in 1779 the disastrous
John Adams was a leader in the independence movement and he helped secure a unanimous vote for independence and on July 4, 1776, the United States Declaration of Independence was adopted in Philadelphia. It was signed first by Massachusetts resident John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress. Soon afterward the Declaration of Independence was read to the people of Boston from the balcony of the State House. Massachusetts was no longer a colony; it was a state and part of a new nation, the United States of America.
Federalist Era: 1780–1815
A Constitutional Convention drew up a state constitution, which was drafted primarily by John Adams, and ratified by the people on June 15, 1780. Adams, along with Samuel Adams and
We, therefore, the people of Massachusetts, acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the goodness of the Great Legislator of the Universe, in affording us, in the course of His Providence, an opportunity, deliberately and peaceably, without fraud, violence or surprise, on entering into an Original, explicit, and Solemn Compact with each other; and of forming a new Constitution of Civil Government, for Ourselves and Posterity, and devoutly imploring His direction in so interesting a design, Do agree upon, ordain and establish, the following Declaration of Rights, and Frame of Government, as the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Bostonian
The new constitution
Massachusetts was the first state in the United States to abolish slavery. (Vermont, which became part of the U.S. in 1791,
Shays' Rebellion
The economy of rural Massachusetts suffered an economic depression after the war ended. Merchants, pressured for hard currency by overseas partners, made similar demands on local debtors, and the state raised taxes in order to pay off its own war debts. Efforts to collect both public and private debts from cash-poor farmers led to protests that flared into
The state put down the rebellion—but if it had been too weak to do so it would be no help to call on the ineffective federal government. The event led nationalists like
Johnny Appleseed
John Chapman often called Johnny "Appleseed" (born September 26, 1774, in Leominster, Massachusetts) was an American folk hero and pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees and established orchards to many areas in the Midwestern region of the country including Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. Today, Appleseed is the official folk hero of Massachusetts and his stature has served a focus in many children's books, movies, and folk tales since the end of the Civil War.[53]
Early industrial period: 1815–1860
In 1836, Mary Lyon opened Mount Holyoke College, the first women's college in America. Lyon, a very active Congregationalist, promoted the college as an exemplification of the ideas of revivalist Jonathan Edwards regarding self-restraint, self-denial, and disinterested benevolence.[54] One of the first students was reclusive poet Emily Dickinson.
During the 19th century, Massachusetts became a national leader in the American Industrial Revolution, with factories around Boston producing textiles and shoes, and factories around Springfield producing precision manufacturing tools and paper.[55] The economy transformed from one based primarily on agriculture to an industrial one, initially making use of waterpower and later the steam engine to power factories, and canals and later railroads for transporting goods and materials.[56] At first, the new industries drew labor from Yankees on nearby subsistence farms, and later relied upon Catholic immigrants from Ireland and Canada.[57]
Industrial development
Massachusetts became a leader in industrial innovation and development during the 19th century. Since colonial times, there had been a successful iron making industry in New England. The first successful ironworks in America was established at Saugus in 1646,[58] utilizing bog iron from swamps to produce plows, nails, firearms, hoops for barrels and other items necessary for the development of the Colony. Other industries would be established during this period, such as shipbuilding, lumber, paper and furniture making. These small-scale shops and factories often utilized the State's many rivers and streams to power their machinery.
While
With the early success of the Boston Manufacturing Company at Waltham, the Boston Associates would also later establish several other textile towns, including Lowell in 1823, Lawrence in 1845, Chicopee in 1848 and Holyoke in 1850.
Lowell grew quickly to a city of 33,000 people by 1850. Its mills were highly integrated and centrally controlled. An
Industrial cities, especially Worcester and Springfield, became important centers in textile machinery (in Worcester's case) and precision tool production and innovation (in Springfield's case.) While Boston did not have many large factories, it became increasingly important as the business and transportation hub of all of New England, as well as a national leader in finance, law, medicine, education, arts and publishing.
Railroads
In 1826, the
Whaling
Beginning in the late colonial period, Massachusetts leveraged its strong seafaring tradition, advanced shipbuilding industry, and access to the oceans to make the U.S. the pre-eminent whaling nation in the world by the 1830s.
Political and social movements
On March 15, 1820, Maine was separated from Massachusetts and entered the Union as the 23rd State as a result of the enactment of the Missouri Compromise.
The Congregationalists remained dominant in rural areas, but, in the cities, a new religious sensibility had replaced their straight-laced
All the literary men of Massachusetts were Unitarians. All the trustees and professors of Harvard College were Unitarians. All the élite of wealth and fashion crowded Unitarian churches. The judges on the bench were Unitarian, giving decisions by which the peculiar features of church organization, so carefully ordained by the
Pilgrim fathers, had been nullified.
Some of the most important writers and thinkers of this time came from Massachusetts. Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson are well known today for their contributions to American thought. Part of an intellectual movement known as Transcendentalism, they emphasized the importance of the natural world to humanity and were also part of the abolitionist call.
Know Nothing movement
The Know Nothing movement formed a new party in 1854 and captured almost all the seats in the legislature, the state government, and many cities. Historian John Mulkern finds the new party was populist and highly democratic, hostile to wealth, elites, and to expertise, and deeply suspicious of outsiders especially Catholics. The new party's voters were concentrated in the rapidly growing industrial towns, where Yankee workers faced direct competition with new Irish immigrants. Whereas the Whig Party was strongest in high income districts, the Know Nothing electorate was strongest in the poor districts. They voted out the traditional upper-class closed political leadership class, especially the lawyers and merchants. In their stead they elected working-class men, farmers, and a large number of teachers and ministers. Replacing the moneyed elite were men who seldom owned $10,000 in property.[64]
In national perspective, the most aggressive and innovative legislation came out of Massachusetts, Both in terms of nativism and in terms of reforms. Historian Stephen Taylor says that in addition to nativist legislation:
the party also distinguished itself by its opposition to slavery, support for an expansion of the rights of women, regulation of industry, and support of measures designed to improve the status of working people.[65]
It passed legislation to regulate railroads, insurance companies, and public utilities. It funded free textbooks for the public schools, and raised the appropriations for local libraries and for the school for the blind. Purification of Massachusetts against divisive social evils was a high priority. The legislature set up the state's first reform school for juvenile delinquents, while trying to block the importation of supposedly subversive government documents and academic books from Europe. It upgraded the legal status of wives, giving them more property rights and more rights in divorce courts. It passed harsh penalties on speakeasies, gambling houses and bordellos. Prohibition legislation imposed severe penalties: serving one glass of beer was punishable by six months in prison. Many juries refused to convict. Many of the reforms were quite expensive; State spending rose 45% on top of a 50% hike in annual taxes on cities and towns. The extravagance angered the taxpayers; few Know Nothings were reelected so the brief two-year experiment ended.[66]
The highest priority included attacks on the civil rights of Irish Catholic immigrants. State courts lost the power to process applications for citizenship; the public schools had to require compulsory daily reading of the Protestant Bible (which the nativists were sure would transform the Catholic children). The governor disbanded the Irish militias, and replaced Catholics holding state jobs with Protestants. It failed to reach the two-thirds vote needed to pass a state constitutional amendment to restrict voting and office holding to men who had resided in Massachusetts for at least 21 years. The legislature then called on Congress to raise the requirement for naturalization from five years to 21 years, but Congress never acted.[67]
The most dramatic move by the Know Nothing legislature was to appoint an investigating committee designed to prove widespread sexual immorality under way in Catholic convents. The press had a field day following the story, especially when it was discovered that the key reformer was using committee funds to pay for a prostitute. The legislature shut down its committee, ejected the reformer, and saw its investigation became a laughing stock.[68][69][70]
Civil War and Gilded Age: 1860–1900
In the years leading up to the
Following the Civil War, thousands of immigrants from Canada and Europe continued to settle in the major cities of Massachusetts, attracted by employment in the state's ever-expanding factories.[80] The state also became a leader in education and innovation through this period, particularly in the Boston area.
Invention of basketball and volleyball
In 1891, and 1895, the sports of basketball and volleyball—both now Olympic sports, popular worldwide—were invented in the Western Massachusetts cities of
Industrial advance
In the 1890s—largely due to the presence of the
Although the basic rail system was in place by 1860, the railways continued to make major improvements in tracks, signals, bridging, and facilities. With steel came heavier trains and more powerful locomotives. In the 1880s the Boston & Albany Railroad invested heavily in its physical facilities, including the construction of over 30 new passenger stations. Famed Boston architect
Passenger transportation was revolutionized by the electric trolley.
Massachusetts played a unique role in what other states called the Progressive Era, 1900–1917. It was relatively conservative in the early 20th century with a weak progressive movement. However, in the late 19th century the old upper-class Yankee establishment had put in place many of the reforms that other states adopted as progressive reforms. The state showed little support for prohibition or woman suffrage.[88]
Prosperity decades: 1900–29
Massachusetts entered the 20th century with a strong industrial economy. Despite a lack of agricultural progress, the economy prospered between 1900 and 1919. Factories throughout the Commonwealth produced goods varying from paper to metals. Boston, in the year 1900, was still the second most important port in the United States, as well as the most valuable U.S. port in terms of its fish market. By 1908, however, the value of the port dropped considerably due to competition. Population growth during this period, which was aided by immigration from abroad, helped in urbanization and forced a change in the ethnic make-up of the Commonwealth.
The largely industrial economy of Massachusetts began to falter, however, due to the dependence of factory communities upon the production of one or two goods. External low-wage competition, coupled with other factors of the Great Depression in later years, led to the collapse of the state's two main industries: shoes and textiles. Between 1921 and 1949 the failure of those industries resulted in rampant unemployment and the urban decay of once-prosperous industrial centers which would persist for several decades.
The industrial economy began a decline in the early 20th century with the exodus of many manufacturing companies. By the 1920s competition from the South and Midwest, followed by the Great Depression, led to the collapse of the three main industries in Massachusetts: textiles, shoemaking, and mechanized transportation.[89] This decline would continue into the latter half of the century; between 1950 and 1979, the number of Bay Staters involved in textile manufacturing declined from 264,000 to 63,000.[90] The Springfield Armory, the United States' Military's munitions producer since 1777, was controversially shut down by the Pentagon in 1968. This spurred an exodus of high-paying jobs from Western Massachusetts, which suffered greatly as it de-industrialized during the last 40 years of the 20th century.[91] In Eastern Massachusetts, following World War II, the economy was transformed from one based on heavy industry into a service and high-tech based economy.[92] 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 corridor was dotted with high-technology companies who recruited graduates of the area's many elite institutions of higher education.[93]
On Thursday, October 1, 1903, the city of Boston made history by hosting the inaugural World Series at the Huntington Avenue Grounds. The Boston Red Sox won the best-of-nine series and launched into a baseball dynasty in the following years by capturing five championships in fifteen years behind Hall of Famer Babe Ruth.
Massachusetts also endured
Depression and war: 1929–1945
Even before the Great Depression struck the United States, Massachusetts was experiencing economic problems. The crash of the Commonwealth's major industries led to declining population in factory towns. The Boston metropolitan area became one of the slowest-growing areas in the United States between 1920 and 1950. Internal migration within the Commonwealth, however, was altered by the Great Depression. In the wake of economic woes, people moved to the metropolitan area of Boston looking for jobs, only to find high unemployment and dismal conditions. In the depressed situation that predominated in Boston during this era, racial tension sometimes manifested itself in gang warfare, notably with clashes between the Irish and Italians.
On the subject of securities laws in the early 1930s in response to the Great Depression, Boston figured prominently. Governor of Massachusetts Frank G. Allen appointed John C. Hull the first Securities Director of Massachusetts in January 1930.[94][95][96] On May 4, 1932, Hull introduced a bill to the committee on Banks and Banking in the Massachusetts House of Representatives for revision and simplification of the law relative to the sale of securities (Chapter 110A). [97] The act was approved June 6. 1932. [98] Three Harvard professors, Felix Frankfurter, Benjamin V. Cohen and James M. Landis drafted both Securities Act of 1933 and Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The 1st Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. was from Boston.[99] Kennedy Sr. had this to say before the Boston Chamber of Commerce on November 15, 1934: "Necessary, legitimate, useful, profitable enterprise will be encouraged. Only the senseless, vicious, and fraudulent activities will be curtailed, and these must and will be eradicated. The initials S-E-C, we hope, will come to stand for Securities Ex-Crookedness. Confidence is an outgrowth of character. We believe that character exists strongly in the financial world, so we do not have to compel virtue; we seek to prevent vice.”[100] On June 6, 1934, FDR signed the Securities Exchange Act into law with Pecora. At one point Roosevelt asked Pecora, "Ferd, now that I have signed this bill and it has become law, what kind of law will it be?" "It will be a good or bad bill, Mr. President," replied Pecora, "depending upon the men who administer it." (Ritchie, 59) [101]
The economic and social turmoil in Massachusetts marked the beginning of a change in the Commonwealth's way of functioning. Politics helped to encourage stability among social groups by elevating members of various ranks in society, as well as ethnic groups, to influential posts. The two major industries of Massachusetts, shoes and textiles, had declined in a way that even the post-World War II economic boom could not reverse. Thus, the Commonwealth's economy was ripe for change as the post-war years dawned.
Economic changes: decline of manufacturing, 1945–1985
World War II precipitated great changes in the economy of Massachusetts, which led to changes in society. The aftermath of WWII created a
In the ensuing years, government contracts, private investment, and research facilities helped to create a modern industry, which reduced unemployment and increased per capita income. All of these economic changes encouraged suburbanization and the formation of a new generation of well-assimilated and educated middle-class workers. At the same time, suburbanization and urban decay highlighted differences between various social groups, leading to a renewal of racial tension. Boston, a paragon of the problems in Massachusetts cities, experienced numerous challenges that led to racial problems. The problems facing urban centers included declining population, middle-class flight, departure of industry, high unemployment, rising taxes, low property values, and competition among ethnic groups.
The Kennedy family
The Kennedy family was prominent in Massachusetts politics in the 20th century. Children of businessman and ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. included:
- John F. Kennedy, a United States senator from Massachusetts from 1953 to 1960 and president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination in 1963
- Robert F. Kennedy, United States Attorney General from 1961 to 1964, United States senator from New York from 1965 to 1968, and presidential candidate in 1968 until his assassination
- Ted Kennedy, a United States senator from Massachusetts from 1962 until his death in 2009 and presidential candidate in 1980[102]
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver, a co-founder of the Special Olympics.[103]
John F. Kennedy's birthplace and early childhood home is located on Beals Street in Brookline, Massachusetts. The famous Kennedy Compound is located in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts on Cape Cod.[104]
Modern economy and society: 1985–present
Over the past 20–30 years, Massachusetts has cemented its place in the country as a center of education (especially higher education) and high-tech industry, including the biotechnology and information technology sectors. With better-than-average schools overall and many elite universities, the area was well placed to take advantage of the technology-based economy of the 1990s. The rebound from the decay of manufacturing into the high-technology sector is often referred to as the Massachusetts Miracle.
The Commonwealth had several notable citizens in federal government in the 1980s, including presidential hopeful Senator
Several Massachusetts politicians have run for the office of President of the United States in this period, won the primary elections, and gone on to contest the national elections. These include:
- Michael Dukakis in 1988; defeated by George H. W. Bush
- John Kerry in 2004; defeated by George W. Bush
- Mitt Romney in 2012; defeated by Barack Obama
In 2002, the
On November 18, 2003, the
Increased white-collar jobs have driven suburban sprawl, but the consequent effects of sprawl have been lessened by regulations on land use and zoning, as well as an emphasis on "smart growth". In recent years, the Commonwealth has lost population as high housing costs have driven many away from Massachusetts. The Boston area is the third most expensive housing market in the country. Over the last several years there has been a net outflow of about 19,000 people from the Commonwealth.[citation needed][needs update]
In 2006, the Massachusetts legislature enacted the first plan in the United States to provide all Commonwealth citizens with universal health insurance coverage, using a variety of private insurance providers. Insurance coverage for low-income individuals is paid for with tax revenues, and higher income people who don't have health insurance are required to purchase it. (The health insurance market is publicly regulated, so, at least in Massachusetts, no one can be denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions or be forced to pay exorbitant rates.) The implementation of
Two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, killing three spectators and injuring 264. The 2 brothers Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev set the bombs because they were motivated by extremist Islamic beliefs and learned to build explosive devices from an online magazine of an al-Qaeda affiliate.[105]
On November 8, 2016, Massachusetts voted for The Massachusetts Marijuana Legalization Initiative, also known as Question 4.
The Big Dig
In 1987, the state received federal funding for the Central Artery/Tunnel Project. Known as "the
Boundaries
The history of the boundaries of Massachusetts is somewhat complex and covers several centuries. Land grants made to various groups of early colonists, mergers and secessions, and settlements of various boundary disputes all had a major influence on the modern definition of the Commonwealth. Disputes arose due to both overlapping grants, inaccurate surveys (creating a difference between where the border "should" be and where markers are placed on the ground). Having loyal settlers actually on the ground also partially determined which portions of their vast claims early groups held on too.
Founding grants
In 1607, the
The Plymouth Council for New England made sub grants to various entities before it was surrendered to the crown in 1635 and ceased to operate as a corporate entity.
The
The boundary between the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Plymouth Colony was settled in 1639, and today forms most of the border between Norfolk County to the north and Plymouth and Bristol counties to the south.
In 1622, Sir
The 1629 charter of Massachusetts Bay was canceled by a judgment of the high court of chancery of England, June 18, 1684.[110]
The
New Hampshire boundary
The Province of New Hampshire received a separate royal charter in 1679, but the language defining the southern border with Massachusetts Bay referenced the Merrimack River in an ambiguous way:
all that parte of New England in America lying and extending from the greate River commonly called Monomack als Merrimack on the northpart and from three Miles Northward of the said River to the Atlantick or Western Sea or Ocean on the South part [Pacific Ocean][110]
The result was disagreement over the northern boundary of Massachusetts that was often ignored by its governors because in those years they governed both Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Massachusetts claimed land west of the Merrimack as calculated from the headwaters of the river (which early colonial officials claimed to be the outlet of Lake Winnipesaukee in modern-day Franklin, New Hampshire), but New Hampshire claimed that its southern boundary was the line of latitude three miles north of the river's mouth. The parties appealed to King George II of Great Britain, who ordered the dispute be settled by agreement between the parties. Commissioners from both colonies met at Hampton, New Hampshire in 1737, but were unable to reach agreement.
In 1740, the King settled the dispute in a surprising manner, by declaring "that the northern boundary of Massachusetts be a similar curve line pursuing the course of the Merrimack River at three miles distance on the north side thereof, beginning at the Atlantic Ocean and ending at a point due north of a place called Pawtucket Falls [now Lowell, Massachusetts], and by a straight line drawn from thence west till it meets his Majesty's other governments." This ruling favored New Hampshire and actually gave it a strip of land 50 miles beyond its claim. Massachusetts declined to do a physical survey, so New Hampshire laid markers on its own.[110]
Rhode Island eastern border
In 1641, the Plymouth Colony (at the time separate from the Massachusetts Bay Colony) purchased from the Indians a large tract of land which today includes the northern half of East Providence (from Watchemoket to Rumford), Rehoboth, Massachusetts, Seekonk, Massachusetts, and part of Pawtucket, Rhode Island. In 1645, John Brown of Plymouth bought a considerably smaller piece of land from the Indians, which today comprises the southern part of East Providence (Riverside), Barrington, Rhode Island, and a small part of Swansea, Massachusetts. Finally, in 1661, Plymouth completed the "North Purchase", from which Cumberland, Rhode Island, Attleboro, Massachusetts, and North Attleborough, Massachusetts, were later to be formed. The whole territory, which also included parts of modern Somerset, Massachusetts, and Warren, Bristol, and Woonsocket in Rhode Island, was at the time called "Rehoboth". The center of "Old Rehoboth" was within the borders of modern East Providence, Rhode Island.
By the 1650s, Massachusetts Bay, the Colony of Rhode Island (not yet unified with Providence) the
In 1663, Rhode Island obtained a patent extending its territory in certain places three miles east of Narragansett Bay. In 1664, a royal commission appointed by King Charles II of England denied the claims of Massachusetts and Plymouth to land west of Narragansett Bay, granting jurisdiction to the newly unified Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (pending resolution of the claims of Connecticut). However, the claims of Plymouth to all lands east of Narragansett Bay were upheld, and so the border was set in practice.[111]
The 1691 charter unified Massachusetts Bay with Plymouth Colony (including Rehoboth) and said that the combined territory would extend as far south as "Our Collonyes of Rhode Island Connecticut and the Narragansett Countrey"[110] (Narragansett Country).
In 1693, the monarchs
The issue was not addressed until 1740, when Rhode Island appealed to King George II of Great Britain. Royal commissioners from both colonies were appointed in 1741, and decided in favor of Rhode Island. The King affirmed the settlement in 1746 after appeals from both colonies. The royally approved three-mile boundary moved several towns on the eastern shore of Narragansett Bay (east of the mouth of the Blackstone River) from Massachusetts to Rhode Island.
This included what is now
Commissioners from Rhode Island had the new boundary surveyed in 1746 (without consulting Massachusetts), based on six reference points, from each of which a distance was measured 3 miles inland. Massachusetts accepted this border until 1791, when its own surveyors found that the Rhode Island surveyors had "encroached" on Massachusetts territory by a few hundred feet in certain places. (Rhode Island disagreed.) Of particular concern was the boundary near Fall River, Massachusetts, which would later fall in the middle of a thickly settled area of high taxable value.[111]
In 1812, after a court case involving the Massachusetts border, the western half of Old Rehoboth was set off as a separate township called Seekonk, Massachusetts, leaving the eastern part as Rehoboth, Massachusetts. Old Rehoboth's town center now became the heart of Old Seekonk.
In 1832, Rhode Island filed a case with the
In 1844, and 1845, commissioners were once again authorized to survey and mark the boundary from Wrentham to the Atlantic Ocean, to address the inaccuracies of the 1746 survey. A report was issued in 1848, but the Massachusetts legislature refused to agree to the proposed solution after petitions from residents of Fall River.[111][114]
Both states filed bills of equity with the Supreme Court in 1852, and after more surveying and negotiation, a decree was issued on December 16, 1861. On March 1, 1862, when the Supreme Court ruling became effective,[110] the western part of Old Seekonk (all of which was on the eastern shore of the Blackstone River) was ceded by Massachusetts and incorporated as East Providence, Rhode Island. Part of North Providence, Rhode Island, was also combined with the former Pawtucket, Massachusetts and a sliver of Seekonk to form the modern Pawtucket, Rhode Island. A small amount of land was also added to Westport, Massachusetts.[114] The southern boundary of Fall River, Massachusetts, was moved from Columbia Street to State Avenue, expanding its territory. The Supreme Court made these adjustments not in conformance with King George's instructions, but to unify the thickly settled areas of Pawtucket and Fall River under the jurisdiction of a single state.[111]
The 1861–2 boundary was slightly redefined in 1897, using stone markers instead of high-water levels. The physical survey was performed in 1898, and ratified by both states.
Rhode Island northern border
In 1710–11, commissioners from the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and the Province of Massachusetts Bay agreed that the stake planted in 1642 by Nathaniel Woodward and Solomon Saffrey at Burnt Swamp Corner on the plains of Wrentham, Massachusetts, said to be at 41°55′N and thought to be three miles south of the southernmost part of the Charles River, would represent the starting point for the border.
The line extending west from the stake was surveyed in 1719, but inaccurately.[110]
In 1748, Rhode Island appointed a commission to survey the line from the stake to the Connecticut border, but Massachusetts failed to send a delegation. The surveyors could not find the 1642 stake, and so marked a line from three miles south, by their reckoning, of "Poppatolish Pond" (presumably Populatic Pond, near Norfolk Airpark in Norfolk, Massachusetts). It was discovered that the Woodward and Saffrey stake was considerably farther south than three miles from the Charles River.[110]
Rhode Island claimed that its commissioners had made a mistake in basing the border on the 1642 stake, and in 1832 filed a case with the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1846, the Court ruled in favor of Massachusetts. The same surveyors that marked the eastern boundary the previous year then marked the northern boundary, filing their report in 1848. Rhode Island accepted the markings as the legal boundary on the condition that Massachusetts do the same, but the Commonwealth failed to do so until 1865. But by that time, Rhode Island claimed that the 1861 Supreme Court case had changed matters so much as to render the "line of 1848" unacceptable.
Connecticut border
The town of
In 1641, Connecticut founded a trading post at Woronoke, which was in what was strongly considered to be Massachusetts territory (now Westfield).[116] Massachusetts complained, and Connecticut demanded that Springfield pay taxes to support the upkeep of the fort at the mouth of the river, in the Saybrook Colony. Springfield's magistrate, William Pynchon, would have been amenable to the tax if Springfield could have representation at the fort at Saybrook; however, Connecticut refused Springfield's request for representation. Pynchon appealed to Boston, which responded to Connecticut by threatening to charge Connecticut traders for the use of the port of Boston on which they heavily depended.[115]
To assert its sovereignty on the northern Connecticut River, the Massachusetts Bay Colony sent Nathaniel Woodward and Solomon Saffrey to survey and mark the boundary. They accidentally marked the boundary with Rhode Island significantly farther than the royally decreed three miles south of the southernmost part of the Charles River. Instead of traversing the territory of Massachusetts by land, they sailed around and up the Connecticut River, calculating the same latitude at which they had misplaced the stake on the Rhode Island border. This compounded the error even further, resulting in a four to seven mile discrepancy between where the border should have been and where it was marked, and awarding more territory to Massachusetts Bay than it had been granted by its charter. Although it was suspicious of this survey, Connecticut would not even receive a charter until 1662, and so the dispute would lie dormant for several decades.[116][dead link]
The towns of Woodstock, Suffield, Enfield, and Somers were incorporated by Massachusetts, and mainly settled by migrants from the Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth Colonies. In 1686, Suffield and Enfield (incorporated in Massachusetts) were in a dispute over town territory with Windsor and Simsbury (incorporated in Connecticut, and which then included Granby). Massachusetts did not agree to a re-survey, so Connecticut hired John Butler and William Whitney to do the job. They found the southernmost part of the Charles River, and then traveled by land westward. Their 1695 report found that the 1642 line had been drawn too far south.
Consternation ensued. Abortive pleas to England were made in 1702. In 1713, a joint commission awarded control of Springfield-area towns to Massachusetts (without consulting the residents of those towns), compensating Connecticut with an equal amount of land further north. But the inhabitants of the Connecticut River border towns petitioned to be part of Connecticut in 1724, perhaps due to high taxes in Massachusetts or the greater civil liberties granted in the Connecticut charter.[117]
In 1747, Woodstock petitioned the General Assembly of Connecticut to be admitted to the colony because the transfer of lands from Massachusetts in 1713 had not been authorized by The Crown. Suffield and Enfield soon followed, and the legislature accepted them in May 1749, and declared the 1713 compromise null and void. Massachusetts continued to assert sovereignty.[110][117]
In 1770, Southwick, Massachusetts, was granted independence from Westfield, Massachusetts. In May 1774, residents in southern Southwick also petitioned Connecticut for entry and secession from northern Southwick, on the grounds they were south of the royally approved border of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (three miles south of the Charles River). As a compromise, the area west of Congamond Lake remained in Massachusetts, and the area of Massachusetts east of the lake joined Suffield and became part of Connecticut.[118][117]
In 1791, and 1793, commissioners were sent from both states to survey the boundary line yet again, but were unable to agree until a compromise was reached in 1803–04. Massachusetts accepted the nullification of the 1713 compromise and the loss of the border towns, but regained the portion of southern Southwick west of the lake. This resulted in the modern boundary with Connecticut, a relatively straight east–west line except for the "Southwick jog", a small, mostly rectangular piece of Massachusetts surrounded by Connecticut on three sides.[117]
New York border
Massachusetts claimed all territory to the Pacific Ocean, based on its 1629 charter, but the Province of New York claimed the west bank of the Connecticut River (passing through Springfield, Massachusetts) as its eastern boundary, based on 1664 and 1674 grants to the Duke of York. The 1705 Westenhook Patent from the governor of New York allocated land west of the Housatonic River to specific individuals, resulting in ownership conflicts.[119]
In 1773, the western boundary of Massachusetts was settled with New York in its present location, and surveyed in 1787, following the line of
Massachusetts relinquished sovereignty over its western lands (east of the Great Lakes) to New York in the Treaty of Hartford in 1786, but retained the economic right to buy the Boston Ten Townships from Native Americans before any other party. These purchase rights were sold to private individuals in 1788. The Commonwealth also ceded its claim to far western lands (Michigan and all other land to the Pacific Ocean) to Congress in 1785.
In 1853, a small triangle of land in the southwest corner of the Commonwealth, known as
Maine
From 1658 to 1820 Maine was an integral part of Massachusetts. In 1820, Maine was separated from Massachusetts (with its consent) and admitted into the Union as an independent state, as part of the Missouri Compromise. (See the History of Maine for information about its boundaries, including disputes with New Hampshire and Canadian provinces.)
See also
- History of education in Massachusetts
- History of the Massachusetts Turnpike
- History of New England
- Massachusetts Archives
- Native American tribes in Massachusetts
Notes
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Further reading
Surveys
- Brown, Richard D. and Jack Tager. Massachusetts: A Concise History (2002), a recent scholarly history
- Clark, Will L. ed., Western Massachusetts: A History, 1636–1925 (1926), history of towns and institutions
- Cumbler, John T. online Reasonable Use: The People, the Environment, and the State, New England, 1790–1930 (2001), environmental history
- Formisano, Ronald P., and Constance K. Burns, eds. Boston, 1700–1980: The Evolution of Urban Politics (1984)
- Flagg, Charles Allcott, A Guide to Massachusetts local history, Salem : Salem Press Company, 1907.
- Green, James R., William F. Hartford, and Tom Juravich. Commonwealth of Toil: Chapters in the History of Massachusetts Workers and Their Unions (1996)
- Hall, Donald. ed. The Encyclopedia of New England (2005)
- Hart, Albert Bushnell ed.Commonwealth History of Massachusetts, Colony, Province and State (1927–30), a five volume in-depth history, covering political, economic, and social matters online
- Langtry, Albert P. ed., Metropolitan Boston: A Modern History 4 vols. (1929).
- Wilkie, Richard W. and Jack Tager. Historical Atlas of Massachusetts (1991)
- Winsor, Justin ed., The Memorial History of Boston, Including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630–1880 4 vols.
- WPA. Massachusetts: A Guide to Its Places and People. (1937), guide to every city and town
Specialized scholarly studies
To 1780
- Adams, James Truslow. The Founding of New England (1921) online
- Adams, James Truslow. Revolutionary New England, 1691–1776 (1923) online
- Anderson, Fred. A People's Army: Massachusetts Soldiers and Society in the Seven Years' War (UNC Press Books, 2012).
- Andrews, Charles M. The Fathers of New England: A Chronicle of the Puritan Commonwealths (1919), short survey by leading scholar online
- Apostolov, Steven. "Native Americans, Puritans and ‘Brahmins’: genesis, practice and evolution of archaic and pre-modern football in Massachusetts." Sport in Society 20.9 (2017): 1259-1270.
- Axtell, James, ed. The American People in Colonial New England (1973), new social history online
- Bailyn, Bernard. The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson (1975) online
- Bailyn, Bernard. The New England Merchants in the Seventeenth Century (1955) online
- Blanck, Emily. Tyrannicide: Forging an American Law of Slavery in Revolutionary South Carolina and Massachusetts (U of Georgia Press, 2014).
- Bremer, Francis J. John Winthrop: America's Forgotten Founding Father (2003) online
- Bremer, Francis J. "John Winthrop and the Shaping of New England History." Massachusetts Historical Review 18 (2016): 1–17.
- Brown, Robert E. Middle Class Democracy in Massachusetts, 1691–1789 (1955) online
- Cronon, William. Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists and the Ecology of New England (1983), environmental history online
- Dale, Elizabeth. Debating–and Creating–Authority: The Failure of a Constitutional Ideal in Massachusetts Bay, 1629-1649 (Routledge, 2018).
- Fischer, David Hackett. Paul Revere's Ride (1994), explains 1775 in depth online
- Fischer, David Hackett. Albion's seed: Four British folkways in America (Oxford University Press, 1989), detailed coverage of Puritan values and life style.
- Hart, Albert Bushnell ed. Commonwealth History of Massachusetts, Colony, Province and State Volumes 1 and 2 (1927), to 1776
- Hosmer, James Kendall ed. Winthrop's Journal, "History of New England," 1630–1649
- Karlsen, Carol F. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England (1998), new social history
- Labaree, Benjamin Woods. Colonial Massachusetts: A History (1979), scholarly overview online
- Labaree, Benjamin W. The Boston Tea Party (1964) online
- Lockridge, Kenneth A. A New England Town: The First Hundred Years: Dedham, Massachusetts, 1636–1736 (1970), new social history online
- Miller, John C. Sam Adams: Pioneer in Propaganda (1936)
- Nagl, Dominik. No Part of the Mother Country, but Distinct Dominions - Law, State Formation and Governance in England, Massachusetts and South Carolina, 1630-1769 (LIT, 2013).online
- Riordan, Liam. "A Loyalist Who Loved His Country too Much: Thomas Hutchinson, Historian of Colonial Massachusetts." New England Quarterly 90.3 (2017): 344–384.
- Rutman, Darrett B. Winthrop's Boston: Portrait of a Puritan Town, 1630–1649 (1965)
- Taylor, Robert J. Western Massachusetts in the Revolution (1954)
- Tyler, John W. "Thomas Hutchinson: America's “Enlightenment” Historian." Massachusetts Historical Review 18 (2016): 64-87.
- Vaughan, Alden T. New England Frontier: Puritans and Indians 1620–1675 (1995)
- Warden, G. B. Boston 1689–1776 (1970) online
- Waters Jr, John J. The Otis Family in Provincial and Revolutionary Massachusetts (UNC Press Books, 2015).
- Weeden, William. Economic and Social History of New England, 1620–1789 (1890) online
- Whiting, Gloria McCahon. "Emancipation without the courts or constitution: the case of Revolutionary Massachusetts." Slavery & Abolition (2019): 1-21. online[dead link]
- Zobel, Hiller B. The Boston Massacre (1978)
1780–1900
- Adams, James Truslow. New England in the Republic, 1776–1850 (1926) online
- Banner, James. To the Hartford Convention: The Federalists and the Origins of Party Politics in Massachusetts, 1789–1815 (1970) online
- Barth, Jonathan Edward (2014). "'A Peculiar Stampe of Our Owne': The Massachusetts Mint and the Battle over Sovereignty, 1652-1691". The New England Quarterly. 87 (3): 490–525. S2CID 57571000.
- Baum, Dale. The Civil War Party System: The Case of Massachusetts, 1848–1876 (1984), new political history
- Berenson, Barbara F. "The Campaign for Women's Suffrage in Massachusetts, 1869-95." Historical Journal of Massachusetts 47.2 (2019): 26+.
- Blodgett, Geoffrey The Gentle Reformers: Massachusetts Democrats in the Cleveland Era (1966) online
- Breitborde, Mary-Lou, and Kelly Kolodny. "The People's Schools for Teachers of the People: The Development of Massachusetts' State Teachers Colleges." Historical Journal of Massachusetts, vol. 43, no. 2, 2015, p. 2+. abstract
- Brooks, Van Wyck. The Flowering of New England, 1815–1865 (1936), famous writers online
- Clark, Christopher. The Roots of Rural Capitalism: Western Massachusetts, 1780–1860 (1990) online
- Deutsch, Sarah. Women and the City: Gender, Space, and Power in Boston, 1870–1940 (2000)
- Dublin, Thomas. Women at Work: The Transformation of Work and Community in Lowell, Massachusetts, 1826–1860 (1993)
- Faler, Paul Gustaf. Mechanics and Manufacturers in the Early Industrial Revolution: Lynn, Massachusetts, 1780–1860 (1981)
- Formisano, Ronald P. The Transformation of Political Culture: Massachusetts Parties, 1790s–1840s (1983), new political history online
- Forrant, Robert. "The Rise and Demise of the Connecticut River Valley's Industrial Economy." Historical Journal of Massachusetts 46.1 (2018).
- Goodman, Paul. The Democratic-Republicans of Massachusetts (1964)
- Green, James R., William F. Hartford, and Tom Juravich. Commonwealth of Toil: Chapters in the History of Massachusetts Workers and Their Unions (1996)
- Gutman, Herbert. The New England Working Class and the New Labor History (1987)
- Handlin, Oscar and Mary Flug Handlin. Commonwealth: A Study of the Role of Government in the American Economy: Massachusetts, 1774–1861 (1947), influential study online
- Handlin, Oscar. Boston's Immigrants: A Study in Acculturation (1941), social history to 1865 online
- Lahav, Alexandra D., and R. Kent Newmyer. "The Law Wars in Massachusetts, 1830-1860: How a Band of Upstart Radical Lawyers Defeated the Forces of Law and Order, and Struck a Blow for Freedom and Equality Under Law." American Journal of Legal History 58.3 (2018): 326–359.
- Lu, Qian. From Partisan Banking to Open Access: The Emergence of Free Banking in Early Nineteenth Century Massachusetts (Springer, 2017).
- Minardi, Margot. Making Slavery History: Abolitionism and the Politics of Memory in Massachusetts (Oxford UP, 2012).
- Morison, Samuel Eliot. The Maritime History of Massachusetts, 1783–1860 (1921)
- Nelson, William. Americanization of the Common Law: The Impact of Legal Change on Massachusetts Society, 1760–1830 (1994)
- Peters Jr., Ronald M. The Massachusetts Constitution of 1780: A Social Compact (1978)
- Porter, Susan L. Women of the Commonwealth: Work, Family, and Social Change in Nineteenth-Century Massachusetts (1996)
- Prude, Jonathan. The Coming of Industrial Order: A Study of Town and Factory Life In Rural Massachusetts, 1813–1860 (1983)
- Rosenkrantz, Barbara. Public Health and the State: Changing Views in Massachusetts, 1842–1936 (1972),
- Stone, Orra. History of Massachusetts Industries: Their Inception, Growth and Success (4 vol 1930).
- Story, Ronald. The Forging of an Aristocracy: Harvard and the Boston Upper Class, 1800–1870 (1980).
- David Szatmary. Shays' Rebellion: The Making of an Agrarian Insurrection (1980);
- Tager, Jack, and John W. Ifkovic, eds. Massachusetts in the Gilded Age: Selected Essays (1985), essays on ethnic groups
- Vinovskis, Maris A. Fertility in Massachusetts from the Revolution to the Civil War (Academic Press, 2013).
- Wall & Gray. 1871 Atlas of Massachusetts. 1871 (Atlas of Massachusetts, with counties and municipalities.)
- Ware, Edith E. Political Opinion in Massachusetts during the Civil War and Reconstruction, (1916). full text online
- Wilson, Harold Fisher. The Hill Country of Northern New England: Its Social and Economic History, 1790–1930(1967)
1900–present
- Abrams, Richard M. Conservatism in a Progressive Era: Massachusetts Politics, 1900–1912 (1964)
- Anderson, Alexis. "Custom and Practice Unmasked: the Legal History of Massachusetts' Experience with the Unauthorized Practice of Law." Massachusetts Law Review 94.4 (2013): 124–141. online
- Black, John D. The rural economy of New England: a regional study (1950)
- Blewett, Mary H. The Last Generation: Work and Life in the Textile Mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, 1910–1960 (1990)
- Bull, Webster. Something in the Ether: A Bicentennial History of Massachusetts General Hospital, 1811-2011 (2011)
- Brewer, Daniel Chauncey. Conquest of New England by the Immigrant (1926) online
- Connolly, Michael C. "Splitting the Vote in Massachusetts: Father Charles E. Coughlin, the Union Party, and Political Divisions in the 1936 Presidential and Senate Elections." Historical Journal of Massachusetts 43.2 (2015): 90+.
- Conforti, Joseph A. Imagining New England: Explorations of Regional Identity from the Pilgrims to the Mid-Twentieth Century (2001)]
- Deutsch, Sarah. Women and the City: Gender, Space, and Power in Boston, 1870–1940 (2000)
- Freeland, Richard M. Academia's Golden Age: Universities in Massachusetts, 1945–1970 (1992)
- Garvine, Hariold. "The New Deal in Massachusetts," in John Braeman et al. eds. The New Deal: Volume Two – the State and Local Levels (1975) pp 3–44
- Green, James R., William F. Hartford, and Tom Juravich. Commonwealth of Toil: Chapters in the History of Massachusetts Workers and Their Unions (1996)
- Gutman, Herbert. The New England Working Class and the New Labor History (1987)
- Huthmacher, J. Joseph. Massachusetts People and Politics, 1919–1933 (1958) online
- Kane, Paula M. Separatism and Subculture: Boston Catholicism, 1900–1920 (1994)
- Lazerson, Marvin, Origins of the Urban School: Public Education in Massachusetts, 1870–1915 (1971)
- Litt, Edgar. The Political Cultures of Massachusetts (1965). online
- Lockard, Duane. New England State Politics (1959), pp 119–71 covers 1945–58
- McLaughlin, Capt Daniel W. "Massachusetts Aviation." Air & Space Power Journal 33.3 (2019): 99+.
- Nutter, Kathleen Banks. "Women Reformers and the Limitations of Labor Politics in Massachusetts, 1874-1912." Historical Journal of Massachusetts 42.1 (2014): 80+.
- Peirce, Neal R. The New England States: People, Politics, and Power in the Six New England States (1976) pp 62–140; updated in Neal R. Peirce and Jerry Hagstrom, The Book of America: Inside the Fifty States Today (1983) pp 153–75; in-depth coverage of the 1958–82 era
- Stack Jr., John F. International Conflict in an American City: Boston's Irish, Italians, and Jews, 1935–1944 (1979).
- Trout, Charles. Boston, The Great Depression and the New Deal (1977)
- White, William Allen. A Puritan in Babylon: The Story of Calvin Coolidge (1938)
- Whitehill, Walter Muir. Boston in the Age of John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1966)
- WPA. Massachusetts: A Guide to Its Places and People. (1937), guide to every city and town
- Zimmerman, Joseph F. The New England Town Meeting: Democracy in Action (1999)
Primary sources
- Online sources, via digitalbookindex.com
- Bradford William. History of Plymouth Plantation Edited by Worthington C. Ford. 2 vols. Boston, 1912. online excerpts
- Dwight, Timothy. Travels Through New England and New York (circa 1800) 4 vol. (1969) Online at: vol 1; vol 2[permanent dead link]; vol 3[permanent dead link]; vol 4[permanent dead link]
- 1837 descriptions of Massachusetts cities, towns, mountains, lakes, and rivers, from Hayward's New England Gazetteer.
- McPhetres, S. A. A political manual for the campaign of 1868, for use in the New England states, containing the population and latest election returns of every town (1868)
- Taylor, Robert J. ed. Massachusetts, Colony to Commonwealth: Documents on the Formation of the Constitution, 1775–1780 (1961)
- Wood, William (ed by Alden T. Vaughan). New England's Prospect (1634), the earliest long description of natural history
External links
- Scholarly articles in Massachusetts Historical Review
- scholarly articles in New England Quarterly
- Scholarly articles in William and Mary Quarterly
- Official History of Massachusetts - Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
- Massachusetts Historical Society
- Massachusetts historical city atlases - State Library of Massachusetts
- Maps of Massachusetts - David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
- MassHistory.com
- Historical Journal of Massachusetts Archived December 9, 2016, at the Wayback Machine - Westfield State University
- Massachusetts State Guide from the Library of Congress