Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Flag of Massachusetts Seal of Massachusetts
State nickname: Bay State
Official languages	English
Capital	Boston
Largest city	Boston
Governor	Mitt Romney (R)
Senators	Edward Kennedy (D) John Kerry (D)
Area  - Total  - % water	Ranked 44th 27,360 km² 25.7
Population  - Total (2000)  - Density	Ranked 13th 6,349,097 312.68/km² (3rd)
Admission into Union	February 6, 1788 (6th)
Time Zone	Eastern: UTC-5/-4
Coordinates  - Latitude  - Longitude  - Width  - Length	41°10'N to 42°53'N 68°57'W to 73°30'W 305 km 80 km
Elevation  - Highest point  - Mean  - Lowest point	1,063 m 150 m 0 m
Abbreviations  - USPS  - ISO 3166-2	MA US-MA
Web site	www.mass.gov

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the United States of America.

Name

Mass-adchu-et

The Massachusetts Bay Colony was named after the indigenous population, the Massachusett, whose name can be segmented

mass-adchu-et

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

with reference to the Blue Hills, or in particular, Big Blue Hill, located on the boundary of Milton and Canton, to the southwest of Boston.

Commonwealth

Main article: Commonwealth and State naming debate

Massachusetts officially designates itself a "commonwealth", although "state" is commonly used.

Geography

A portion of the north-central Pioneer Valley near South Deerfield, much more rural than Springfield, in the southern part of the valley, or Boston, which is on the coast.

Main article: Massachusetts Geography

Massachusetts is bordered on the north by New Hampshire and Vermont, on the west by New York, on the south by Connecticut and Rhode Island, and on the east by the Atlantic Ocean. At the southeastern corner of the state is a large, sandy, arm-shaped peninsula called Cape Cod. The islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket lie to the south of Cape Cod.

Massachusetts is known as the Bay State because of the several large bays that give its coastline its distinctive shape: Massachusetts Bay and Cape Cod Bay on the state's east coast, and Buzzards Bay to the south. A few cities and towns on the Massachusetts–Rhode Island border are also adjacent to Narragansett Bay.

Boston is the largest city, located at the inmost point of Massachusetts Bay, at the mouth of the Charles River, the longest river entirely within Massachusetts. Most of the population of the Boston metropolitan area (approximately 5,800,000) does not live in the city; eastern Massachusetts on the whole is fairly densely populated and largely suburban. Western Massachusetts is more rural and sparsely populated, especially in the Berkshires, the branch of the Appalachian Mountains which forms the western border of the state. The most populated part of western Massachusetts is the "Pioneer Valley," alongside the Connecticut River, which flows across Western Massachusetts from north to south.

History

Indians

Various Algonquin tribes inhabited the area prior to European settlement. In the Massachusetts Bay area resided the Massachusett. Near the Vermont and New Hampshire borders and the Merrimack River valley was the traditional home of the Pennacook tribe. 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. Spillovers of Narragansett and Mohegan from Rhode Island and Connecticut, respectively, were also present.

The Massachusett, as were all the Indians on the coast of New England, were heavily decimated by waves of smallpox both before and after the arrival of Captain John Smith in 1614. They had developed no immunity to the disease, a common story when Europeans visited parts of the world remote from Europe. If the tribe had survivors, there is no record of them after this point.

Europeans: Pilgrims, Puritans and Yankees (1620-1629)

The Pilgrims from the Humber region of England established their settlement at Plymouth in 1620, arriving on the Mayflower. One of their first tasks was to form a government, the Mayflower compact. They also suffered grievously from the native smallpox, but they were assisted in their time of trouble by the Wampanoags under chief Massasoit. In 1621 they celebrated their first Thanksgiving Day together to thank God for their survival. About half survived the first year.

The English settlers built small compact villages, leaving alone vast stretches of the state. Their numbers swelled by the harsh treatment of puritans by King Charles I. The natives called them the Yengeeze, their pronunciation of English, which became yankee.

Massachusetts Bay Colony period (1629-1686)

The Pilgrims were soon followed by puritans from the River Thames region of England, who established the Massachusetts Bay Colony. This colony eclipsed Plymouth in population and economy, the chief factor being the good harbor at Boston. When the English Revolution beganin 1642, Massachusetts Bay Colony became a Puritan stonghold.

Relations with the natives were still good at this time. In 1646 the Long Parliament gave John Eliot a commission and funds to preach to the Wampanoags. He succeeded in converting a large number. The colonial government placed them in a ring of villages around Boston as a defensive strategy. They were called praying indians. The oldest, Natick, was built in 1651.

The Puritans came to Massachusetts for religious prification 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. Then Quakers were banned, and in 1660 four were hanged in Boston Common (see Mary Dyer). Dissenters such as Anne Hutchinson, Roger Williams, and Thomas Hooker left Massachusetts because of the Puritans' lack of religious tolerance. Williams ended up founding the colony of Rhode Island and Hooker founded Connecticut.

Tensions with the Puritans led Massasoit's son, Philip. King Philip's War (1675-76), to launch the bloodiest Indian war of the early colonial period. There were major campaigns in the Pioneer Valley and Plymouth Colony. The praying indians were caught in the middle. Most left Massachusetts. Only 400 remained in 1677, to reoccupy Wampanoag lands in southeastern Massachusetts.

But starting in the 1670s, Massachusetts followed the general colonial practice of adopting slave codes, which removed the limitation on the term of slavery for non-whites only. It became fashionable for respectable familes to own one or more household slaves as cooks or butlers.

Dominion of New England (1686-1692)

In 1685 King James II of England, an outspoken Catholic, acceded to the throne and began to militate against Protestant rule, including the Protestant control of New England. In May 1686, the Massachusetts Bay Colony ended when its charter was annulled. The King appointed Joseph Dudley to the new post of President of New England. Dudley established his authority later in New Hampshire and the King's Province (part of current Rhode Island), maintaining this position until Edmund Andros arrived to become the Royal Governor of the Dominion of New England. After James II was overthrown by King William and Queen Mary, the colonials overthrew Andros and his officials. Andros's post was given to the Simon Bradstreet until 1692. He merged Massachusetts Bay Colony and Plymouth Colony in 1691. In 1692 a new governor, William Phips, was appointed with a new colonial charter. He governed the colony by leaving it alone. Consequently, during the Salem Witch Trials, Phips only intervened when his own wife was accused.

Royal Colony of Massachusetts (1692-1774)

Notable governors during this period were Thomas Hutchinson, Francis Bernard, and General Thomas Gage. Gage was the last British governor of Massachusetts.

Revolutionary Massachusetts (1760s-1780s)

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.

In Boston on March 5, 1770, 5 protestors were shot by British soldiers in the Boston Massacre.

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. This was the last fighting in the state but the Massachusetts state navy did manage to get itself destroyed by the British fleet.

Federalist Era (1780-1815)

A Constitutional Convention drew up a Constitution drafted mainly by John Adams, and the people ratified it on June 15, 1780. At that time, Adams along with Samuel Adams, and James Bowdoin wrote in the Preamble to the Constitution of the Commonwealth, 1780:

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 surprize, 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.

Massachusetts was the first state to assert that, under its own Constitution, slavery did not exist, as all men had been declared free.

=Leader in Industrialization: 1815-1860

Massachusetts led the country in abolitionism.

Civil War and Gilded Age, 1860-1900

Massachusetts was among the first states to respond to President Lincoln's call for troops. Massachusetts was the first state to recruit, train and arm a black regiment, with white officers, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry.

=Prosperity Decades 1900-1929

=Depression and War 1929-1945

Economic Changes: Decline of Manufacturing 1945-1980

Postmodern Massachusetts: Economy and Society 1980-2006

Scholarly books on Massachusetts History

• Adams, James Truslow. Revolutionary New England, 1691-1776 (1923)
• Adams, James Truslow. New England in the Republic, 1776-1850 (1926)
• Andrews, Charles M. The Fathers of New England: A Chronicle of the Puritan Commonwealths (1919) short survey by leading scholar.
• Axtell, James, ed. The American People in Colonial New England (1973), new social history
• Baum, Dale. The Civil War Party System: The Case of Massachusetts, 1848-1876 (1984) new political history
• Bremer, Francis J. John Winthrop: America's Forgotten Founding Father (2003)
  • Hosmer, James Kendall ed. Winthrop's Journal, "History of New England," 1630-1649 - Vol. 1; Hosmer, James Kendall ed. Winthrop's Journal, "History of New England," 1630-1649 - Vol. 2
• Brewer, Daniel Chauncey. Conquest of New England by the Immigrant (1926).
• Deutsch, Sarah. Women and the City: Gender, Space, and Power in Boston, 1870-1940 (2000)
• Fischer, David Hackett. Paul Revere's Ride (1994)
• Conforti, Joseph A. Imagining New England: Explorations of Regional Identity from the Pilgrims to the Mid-Twentieth Century (2001)
• Hart, Albert Bushnell ed.Commonwealth History of Massachusetts, Colony, Province and State Vol. 1 (1927)
• Karlsen, Carol F. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England (1998), new social history*
• Lazerson, Marvin, Origins of the Urban School: Public Education in Massachusetts, 1870-1915 (1971)
• Lockridge, Kenneth A. A New England Town: The First Hundred Years: Dedham, Massachusetts, 1636-1736 (1985), new social history
• Morison, Samuel Eliot. The Maritime History of Massachusetts, 1783-1860 (1921)
• Palfrey, John Gorham. History of New England vol 1 (1858), classic political narrative.
• Porter, Susan L. Women of the Commonwealth: Work, Family, and Social Change in Nineteenth-Century Massachusetts (1996)
• Tager, Jack, and John W. Ifkovic, eds. Massachusetts in the Gilded Age: Selected Essays (1985) essays by scholars on ethnic groups
• Taylor, Robert J. Western Massachusetts in the Revolution (1954)
• WPA. Guide to Massachusetts (1939)
• Zimmerman, Joseph F. The New England Town Meeting: Democracy in Action (1999)

Other notable history

• Battles of the American Revolution - Battles of Lexington and Concord, Siege of Boston, Battle of Bunker Hill.
• Shays' Rebellion - Western Massachusetts uprising after the Revolution.
• First Governor of the Commonwealth - John Hancock was the first governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
• 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.
• 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.

Economy

Crane & Co. in Dalton, Massachusetts produces the paper for Federal Reserve notes

The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that Massachusetts's total state product in 2003 was $297 billion. Per capita personal income in 2003 was $39,504, making the state the 4^th wealthiest in the nation.

Its agricultural outputs are seafood, nursery stock, dairy products, cranberries, and vegetables. Its industrial outputs are machinery, electric equipment, scientific instruments, printing, and publishing. Thanks largely to the Ocean Spray cooperative, Massachusetts is the second largest cranberry producing state in the union (after Wisconsin). Other sectors vital to the Massachusetts economy include higher education, health care, financial services and tourism.

Demographics

Population

The population of Massachusetts in 2004 was 6,416,505 according to the US Census Bureau. There were 881,400 foreign-born residents living in the state in 2004. Since 1990 the population has increased 400,000, a growth of 6.7%

The bulk of the state's population surrounds Greater Boston, with approximately 5,800,000 people, and the North and South Shores. Historically, the coast has been much more urban than Western Massachusetts, which is very rural, save for the cities of Springfield and Worcester.

Race and Ancestry

The racial makeup of Massachusetts:

• 81.9% White
• 6.8% Hispanic
• 5.4% Black
• 3.8% Asian
• 0.2% Native American
• 2.3% Mixed race

The five largest reported ancestries in Massachusetts are: Irish (22.5%), Italian (13.5%), English (11.4%), French (8%), German (5.9%).

Massachusetts is the most Irish state in the nation and the only state in which people of Irish ancestry (especially in the Boston suburbs) are a plurality. Massachusetts Yankees of colonial English ancestry still have strong presence in the small towns. Franco-Bay Staters are the largest group in much of western and central Massachusetts. Boston has a large African-American population and its largest immigrant group is Haitians. Fall River and New Bedford on the south coast have large populations of people with Portuguese and Brazilian heritages, with a growing Brazilian population in the Boston area. Lowell, in the northeast of the state, is home to the second largest Cambodian (Khmer) community in the country, outside of Long Beach, California. Although most of the Native Americans intermarried or died out, the Wampanoag tribe maintains a small reservation at Aquinnah, on Martha's Vineyard and a non-recognized reservation at Mashpee. The Nipmuck maintain two state-recognized reservations in the central part of the state.

Religion

Although Massachusetts was initially founded and settled by staunch Protestants (Puritan separatists) in the 17th Century and remained a majority-White Anglo Saxon Protestant state for most of its history, it has since become the second most Catholic state in the Union (second only to next-door Rhode Island in its percentage of Catholic population) due to massive Catholic immigration (especially from Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Quebec, Puerto Rico) over the years. Christian Science began in Massachusetts. Today nearly half of the residents of Massachusetts are Roman Catholics and Protestants make up less than one-third of the state's population. The descendants of the Puritans are the Congregational/United Church of Christ members, who remain prominent in the state. Massachusetts also has one of the nation's largest Unitarian Universalist populations. Both of these denominations are noted for their strong support of social justice, civil rights, and moral issues, including strong and early advocacy of abolition of slavery, women's liberation, and legal recognition of gay marriage, though this may differ from their historical practices.

The religious affiliations of the people of Massachusetts (as of 2001) are shown in the table below:

• Christian – 79%
  • Catholic – 47%
  • Protestant – 31%
    • Congregational/United Church of Christ – 4%
    • Baptist – 4%
    • Episcopal – 3%
    • Methodist – 2%
    • Pentecostal – 2%
    • Other Protestant or general Protestant – 16%
  • Other Christian – 1%
• Jewish – 2%
• Unitarian – 1%
• Other Religions – 1%
• Non-Religious – 17%

Government

State House (Boston)

Main article: Massachusetts Government

The capital of Massachusetts is Boston and the current governor is His Excellency Mitt Romney (Republican). All governors of Massachusetts are given the title His Excellency, a carry-over from the Commonwealth's British past, despite titles being uncommon in American political traditions. The state does not maintain an official governor's residence. Massachusetts's two U.S. senators are Edward Kennedy (Democrat) and John Kerry (Democrat); as of the 2001 redistricting, Massachusetts has ten seats in the United States House of Representatives (all Democratic), giving Massachusetts the largest one-party delegation in Congress (i.e. twelve Democrats). The state legislature is formally styled the "Great and General Court" and is manned mostly by Democrats; the highest court is the "Supreme Judicial Court."

Legal holidays observed

Whenever a holiday falls on a Sunday it is observed on the following Monday.

* Celebrated only in Suffolk County (Boston, Chelsea, Revere, Winthrop) and the city of Somerville.

Politics

"Banned in Boston"

During the first half of the 1900s Boston was socially conservative, and strongly under the influence of Methodist minister J. Frank Chase and his New England Watch and Ward Society, founded in 1878. In 1903, the Old Corner Bookstore was raided and fined for selling Boccaccio's Decameron. Howard Johnson's got its start when Eugene O'Neill's