History of Massachusetts

The history of Massachusetts traces Indigenous societies, European colonization, revolution, industrialization, and the state’s changing place in the United States.

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Plymouth Colony: An English colony founded in 1620 on the coast of present-day Massachusetts. Its founding began a lasting English settlement in the region.
Massachusett people: An Indigenous people whose homeland includes the area around present-day Boston and eastern Massachusetts. Their homeland gave Massachusetts its name and preceded English settlement.
American Revolution: The war and political movement through which thirteen British colonies became an independent republic. Resistance in Massachusetts helped ignite the revolution and its opening battles.
John Winthrop: The first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and a leading Puritan colonial figure. His leadership helped establish the colony’s government and religious vision.
Dominion of New England: A short-lived English administrative consolidation of New England colonies from 1686 to 1689. Its centralized rule challenged the local autonomy Massachusetts colonists had developed.
Massachusetts Bay Colony: An English colony founded in 1630 that became the core of the Massachusetts Bay region. Its expansion shaped colonial government, religion, and settlement.
Wampanoag: An Indigenous people whose homelands include southeastern Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island. Wampanoag communities shaped early colonial encounters and remain present today.
Abolitionism in the United States: The movement to end slavery in the United States through political, legal, and social action. Massachusetts became a center of antislavery organizing, publishing, and activism.
Metacomet: A Wampanoag leader, also known as King Philip, who led resistance against English colonists. His conflict with colonists became the region’s devastating King Philip’s War.
Shays' Rebellion: An armed uprising by indebted farmers in western Massachusetts in 1786–1787. It exposed tensions between revolutionary ideals and the new state government.