Massachusetts Research free essay sample

Massachusetts Bay Colony and Boston, and spawned the settlement of other New England colonies. Friction with the natives grew with the population, erupting in the Peugeot War of the mid-asses and King Phillips War in the asses. The colonies were religiously conservative, and Massachusetts Bay authorities in particular repeatedly deported, cast Out, and even executed people with views that did not accord with their narrow Puritan views. The Massachusetts Bay Colony frequently clashed with political opponents in England, including several kings, over its religious intolerance and the status of its charter.Businessmen established wide-ranging trade links, sending ships to the West Indies and Europe, and sometimes shipping goods in violation of the Navigation Acts. These political and trade issues led to the revocation of the Massachusetts charter in 1684. King James II in 1 686 established the Dominion of New England to govern all of New England to centralize royal control and weaken local government. The intensely unpopular rule by Sir Edmund Androids came to a sudden end in 1689 with an uprising sparked by the Glorious Revolution which overthrew King James II.King William Ill established the Province of Massachusetts Bay in 1691 , to over a territory roughly equivalent to that of the modern Commonwealth and Maine, although border issues with its neighbors would persist into the 19th century. Its governors were appointed by the crown, in contrast to the predecessor colonies, which had elected their own governors. This created friction be;en the colonists and the crown, which reached its height in the early days of the American Revolution in the asses and asses.Massachusetts was where the American Revolutionary War began in 1 775, an effort many of its people and businesses supported until Britain formally recognized the United States in 1783. The commonwealth formally adopted the state constitution in 1780, electing John Hancock its first governor. The state was the first to abolish slavery. In the 19th century the commonwealth became a center of industry, with the development of precision manufacturing and weaponry in Springfield, and large-scale mill complexes in Worcester, Heavenlier, and other river communities.The areas around Boston and Springfield became national centers of abolitionist activities, and the Springfield Armory made most Of the weaponry for the Union in the American Civil War. After the war, immigrants from Europe flooded into the state, intuition to expand the states in dustrial base well into the 20th century. Labor strife early in the 20th century led to the inaction of labor laws and the rise of unions. Following the Second World War the states industrial base began a slow decline, with many textile and manufacturing jobs relocated to states and countries with lower costs of labor.The states strength as a center of education contributed to the development of an economy based on information technology and biotechnology in the later years of the 20th century, leading to the Massachusetts Miracle of the late asses. l shall enter n no encomium upon Massachusetts; she needs none. There she is. Behold her, and judge for yourselves. There is her history; the world knows it by heart. The past, at least, is secure. There is Boston and Concord and Lexington and Bunker Hill; and there they will remain forever. Daniel Webster , 1830[1] In 1 755, about 5 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. Dry. 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 Baneful 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 Many troops from Massachusetts participated in the successful Siege of Havana in 1762. Britains victory in the war led to its acquisition of New France, removing the immediate northern wreath to Massachusetts that the French had posed. 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 governors 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 rovings periodic issuance of paper currency was also a persistent source of friction be;en 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 g overnor of Massachusetts, and his effective rule extended to little more than Boston. The westernmost portion of Massachusetts, the Berkshires, were 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, in honor of his home county in England. The largest settlement in Berkshire County was Pittsfield, Massachusetts, founded in 1761. 25] Revolutionary Massachusetts: asses-1 sass[edits Perrys Rescue at Lexington by Ralph Earl and Amos Doolittle from 1 775, an illustration of the Battles of Lexington and Concord. See also: Boston campaign Massachusetts was a center of the movement for independence from Great Britain, earning it the nickname, the Cradle of Liberty. Colonists here had long had uneasy relations with the British monarchy, including open rebellion under the Dominion of New England in the 1 6805. 26] The Boston Tea Party is an example of the protest spirit in the early asses, while the Boston Massacre escalated the conflict. 27] Anti-British activity by men like Sam 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. [28] The Battles of Lexington and Concord initiated the American Revolutionary War and were fought in the Massachusetts towns Of Concord and Lexington . [29] Future President George Washington took over what would become the Continental Army after the battle. His first victory as the Siege of Boston in the winter of 1775-?6, after which the Br itish were forced to evacuate the city. 30] The event is still celebrated in Suffolk County as Evacuation Day. [31] In 1777, George Washington and Henry Knox founded the Arsenal at Springfield, which catcalled many innovations in Massachusetts Connecticut River Valley. Boston[edit] Boston was the center of revolutionary activity in the decade before 1 775, 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 y mobs, two regiments of British regulars arrived.They had been housed in the city with increasing public outrage. In Boston on March 5, 1 770, 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[edit] Main article: Boston Tea Party One of the many taxes protested by the colonists was a tax on tea, imposed when Parliament passed the Townsend Acts, and retained when most of the revisions of those acts were repealed.With the passage of the Tea Act in 1773, tea sold by the British East India Company would become less expensive than smuggled tea, and there would be reduced printmaking opportunities for Massachusetts merchants engaged in the tea trade. This led to protests against the delivery of the companys tea to Boston. On December 16, 1773, when a tea ship of the East India Company was planning to land taxed tea in Boston, a group of local men known as the Sons of Liberty sneaked onto the boat the night before it was to be unloaded and dumped all the tea into the harbor, an act known as the Boston Tea Party.Certificate of gover nment of Massachusetts Bay acknowledging loan of EYE to state treasury by Seth Davenport. September 1777 American Revolution[edit] Main article: American Revolution The Boston Tea Party prompted the British government to pass the Intolerable Acts in 1774 that brought stiff punishment on Massachusetts. They closed the port of Boston, the economic lifeblood of the Commonwealth, and reduced self-government. Local self-government was ended and the colony put under military rule.The Patriots formed the Massachusetts Provincial Congress after the provincial legislature was expanded by Governor Gage. The suffering of Boston and the tyranny of its rule caused great sympathy and stirred resentment throughout the Thirteen Colonies. On February 9, 1775, the British Parliament declared Massachusetts to be in rebellion, and sent additional troops to restore order to the colony. With the local population largely opposing British authority, troops moved from Boston on April 18, 1 775, to destroy the military supplies of local resisters in Concord.Paul Revere made his famous ride to warn the locals in response to this march. On the 19th, in the Battles of Lexington and Concord, here the famous shot heard ;round the world was fired, British troops, after running over the Lexington militia, were forced back into the city by local resistors. The city was quickly brought under siege. Fighting broke out again in June when the British took the Charleston Peninsula in the Battle of Bunker Hill after the colonial militia fortified Breeds Hill.The British won the battle, but at a very large cost, and were unable to break the siege. Soon afterwards General George Washington took charge Of the rebel army, and when he acquired heavy cannon in March 1776, the British were forced to eave, marking the first great colonial victory of the war. Ever since Evacuation Day has been celebrated as a state holiday. Massachusetts was not invaded again but in 1779 the disastrous Penobscot Expedition took place in the District of Maine, then part of the Commonwealth. Trapped by the British fleet, the American sailors sank the ships of the Massachusetts state navy before it could be captured by the British. In May 1778, the section of Freetown that later became Fall River was raided by the British, and in September 1778, the communities of Marshs Vineyard and New Bedford were also subjected to a British raid. 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: 1780-181 5[edit] A Constitutional Convention drew up a State constitution, which was drafted armorial by J ohn Adams, and ratified by the people on June 15, 1780. Adams, along with Samuel Adams and James Bowdon, wrote in the Preamble to the Constitution of the Commonwealth: 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 erection 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 John Adams, known as the Atlas of Independence, was an important figure in both the struggle for independence as well as the formation of the new United States. [32] Adams was highly involved in the push for separation from Britai n and the writing of the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780 (which, in the Elizabeth Freeman and Quick Walker cases, effectively made Massachusetts he first state to have a constitution that declared universal rights and, as interpreted by Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice William Cushing, abolished Adams became minister to Britain in the asses, Vice President in 1 789 and succeeded Washington as President in 1797.His son, John Quince Adams, would go on to become the sixth US President. The new constitution[edit] Massachusetts was the first State to abolish slavery. The new constitution also dropped any religious tests for political office, though local tax money had to be paid to support local churches. People who belonged to non- Congregational churches paid their tax money to their own church, and the churches paid to the Congregationalists. Baptist leader Isaac Backs vigorously fought these provisions, arguing people should have freedom of choice regarding financial support of religion. Adams drafted most of the document and despite numerous amendments it still follows his line of thought.He distrusted utopians and pure democracy, and put his faith in a system of checks and balances; he admired the principles of the unwritten British Constitution. He insisted on a bicameral legislature which would represent both the gentlemen and the common citizen. Above all he insisted on a government by laws, not men. [34] Shays Rebellion[edit] Main article: Shays Rebellion Daniel Shays (left) and Job Shattuck, leaders of the uprising 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 direct action in August 1786. Rebels calling themselves Regulators (after the North Carolina Regulator event of the 1 sass succeeded in shutting down courts meeting to hear debt and tax collection cases. By the end of 1 786 a farmer in western Massachusetts named Daniel Shays emerged as one of the ringleaders, and government attempts to squelch the protests only served to radicalized the protestors. In January 1 787 Shays and Luke Day organized an attempt to take the federal Springfield Armory; state militia holding the armory beat back the attempt with cannon fire.