History of Massachusetts

transformed into a society with less religious fervor because problems with the natives and a desire for more secular goods and possessions made it hard and not popular for the Pilgrims to actively practice their religion. From the beginning of the Massachusetts Bay colony, John Winthrop explicitly states the intentions for the colony to be a religious haven for Puritans when he says that “the Lord make it like that of New England.’ For we must Consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill”…

the end of 1630, more than one thousand colonists had arrived in Massachusetts. John Winthrop became the leader of the small, yet growing community and he began to govern the royal colony. A hater of democracy, “Winthrop prized stability and order” (Tindall and Shi 72). John Winthrop enforced religious orthodoxy and justified the many persecutions of dissenters and heretics. Winthrop maintained a strict civil order in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Over the next ten years, more than twenty…

impact has been felt throughout American history. However, minority groups have had an equal impact, but their history is often ignored because they lack the institutional power. Thus, the reason why there is a National Park Service Boston Black Heritage Trail on Beacon Hill but no National Park Service Boston White Heritage Trail on Beacon…

The Salem Witch Trials were created out of a myriad of complex issues, many of which cannot be explicitly defined. Thus, political instability may not have been as significant to the escalation of the hysteria. For instance, while it is true that the beginning of the conflict began during the inter-charter period, the witch trials continued even after the reestablishment of the royal charter. Benjamin Ray addresses this in his paper, stating, ”By mid-June, the government was fully restored, yet…

“city upon the hill”. The Puritans settled in the now known area of Boston, and held services in bare churches throughout the town. Three people who were principal to Puritan religion in the colonies were Richard Mather, a minister in Dorchester Massachusetts who drafted the Cambridge Platform, a description of the Congregational system. His son Increase Mather, was the minister who ended the Salem Witch Trials. Cotton Mather, who was Richard Mather’s grandson, was a writer who published 450…

of Joseph and Mary Dix. Both parents were known to suffer from alcoholism and bouts of depression, while her father was prone to violent outbursts. This unstable home environment lead Dix to seek refuge with her wealthy grandmother in Boston, Massachusetts where her blossoming interest in learning and education was strongly encouraged. Two years after moving in with her grandmother, at the young age of only 14, Dix began her career as a teacher. By 1821 she opened her first of several schools…

What were the causes? The American Revolution was a political rebellion that started in 1765, and ended in 1783. Things started when colonist from the Thirteen American Colonies refused to submit to the authority of King George III, and the Parliament of Great Britain. This act of defiance led to the foundation that ultimately led to the independent of the United States. In 1765, members of the American colonial society, representatives of the colonist, who would meet and discuss…

John Quincy Adams was born on July 11, 1767, in Braintree, Massachusetts, on a family farm. As the eldest son, his father and mother taught him mathematics and languages. Around the age of ten, in 1778, John Quincy traveled to many European countries such as Paris, The Netherlands, and England. He received proper schooling, at Passy Academy, where he studied dance, music, artistry, and fencing. A few years afterward, he received training in the diplomatic corps; and in 1781, he accompanied…

Massachusetts, McCarthyism, and Mass Hysteria Humankind has expressed throughout time how easy and destructive it can be to accuse others without proper evidence or a truly reliable investigation. First occurring in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, innocent individuals were unjustly persecuted as a result of their seemingly abnormal actions or personal affiliations. Behavior such as this was rekindled, witnessed during McCarthyism in the early 1950’s and the treatment of homosexuals during the…

played an important role in the community, yet they were still being accused of the misfortune of others, instead of identifying and assessing the real issue, and solving. This place I so generously refer to is located in none other than in Salem, Massachusetts, but more specifically the historical event that took place there, the Salem witch trials. Any normal human being would probably choose a less violent, per say, place to…