Massachusetts
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State flag
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MASSACHUSETTS,
officially Commonwealth of Massachusetts, one of the New England states
of the U.S., bordered on the N by Vermont and New Hampshire, on
the E by the Atlantic Ocean and several of its arms (such as the
Gulf of Maine, Massachusetts Bay, Boston Bay, and Cape Cod Bay),
on the SE by the Atlantic Ocean and a number of its arms (such as
Nantucket Sound and Buzzards Bay), on the S by Rhode Island and
Connecticut, and on the W by New York.
Massachusetts entered the Union on Feb. 6, 1788, as the sixth
of the 13 original states. It early became an important intellectual
center, known for Harvard University and the cultural institutions
of Boston. In the 19th century, it developed into a major manufacturing
state, noted for textiles and footwear; in the mid-20th century,
electronic components and other high-technology items became leading
manufactures. Massachusetts is famous for its summer resorts, such
as the sand beaches of Cape Cod. Presidents John Adams, John Quincy
Adams, and John F. Kennedy were born in the state, and President
Calvin Coolidge spent most of his life here. The name of the state
is probably derived from an Algonquian Indian village and may mean “place
of big hills.” Massachusetts is called the Bay State.
| MASSACHUSETTS STATE FACTS |
| DATE OF STATEHOOD: |
February 6, 1788; 6th state |
| CAPITAL: |
Boston |
| MOTTO: |
Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem (By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty) |
| NICKNAME: |
Bay State |
| STATE SONG: |
“All Hail to Massachusetts” (by Richard K. Fletcher) |
| STATE TREE: |
American elm |
| STATE FLOWER: |
Mayflower |
| STATE BIRD: |
Chickadee |
| POPULATION (2000 census): |
6,349,097; 13th among the states |
| AREA: |
27,337 sq km (10,555 sq mi); 44th largest state;
includes 7037 sq km (2717 sq mi) of inland water |
| COASTLINE: |
309 km (192 mi) |
| HIGHEST POINT: |
Mt. Greylock, 1064 m (3491 ft) |
| LOWEST POINT: |
Sea level, at the Atlantic coast |
| ELECTORAL VOTES: |
12 |
| U.S. CONGRESS: |
2 senators; 10 representatives |
| GOVERNOR: |
Deval Patrick (Dem.)
Took office January 2007 |
Massachusetts, with an area of 27,337 sq km (10,555 sq mi)
is 44th in size among the states; about 1.6% of its land
area is owned by the federal government. The state is roughly rectangular
in shape, and its extreme dimensions are about 305 km (about 190
mi) from E to W and about 180 km (about 110 mi) from N to S. Elevations
range from sea level, along the Atlantic Ocean, to 1064 m (3491
ft), atop Mt. Greylock, in the NW. The approximate mean elevation
is 152 m (500 ft). The state has a coastline of 309 km (192 mi) and a tidal shoreline of 2445 km (1519 mi).
Massachusetts can be divided into six major geographical regions.
In the E is the Atlantic Coastal Plain, which encompasses Cape Cod and the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. In
this region glacial deposits lie on top of sedimentary rocks; the
deposits are generally sandy, and wave action and the northward
sweep of the Gulf Stream ocean current have reworked the material
into the fine beaches of the region and have given the Cape its
distinctive shape. Soils are exceedingly sandy and of little agricultural
use.
The Seaboard Lowland provides a transition to the hillier
areas of the interior. In this region softer sedimentary and metamorphic
rocks are more often than not buried by glacial debris. Occasional
undulations in the underlying bedrock produce low hills in areas
where the cover of glacial drift is thin. Between the hills the
cover of glacial drift is thicker, and in some areas, especially
around Wareham, depressions in the deposits are now important cranberry
bogs. In the Boston area are some beautiful elongated hills, called drumlins,
which are features of a glacial origin. Perhaps the most famous
of these drumlins is Bunker Hill.
The Seaboard Lowland grades almost imperceptibly into
the
New England Upland, a region that dominates most of New England and in
Massachusetts is divided into two parts by the Connecticut
Valley Lowland. In the upland the rocks are harder and therefore
have better resisted erosion. The undulating hilly landscape is
veneered with a thin covering of generally infertile glacial deposits.
The upland is, for the most part, smoother in the E and S and rougher
in the W and N. Wachusett Mt. (611 m/2006 ft) is a striking
summit rising above the hilltops in central Massachusetts. It is
a geologic feature called a monadnock.
The state’s fourth major region, the Connecticut
Valley Lowland, contains red sandstones and shales that have been
worn down to a flat plain through millions of years of erosion.
Alluvial deposits from the Connecticut R. and clays from an ancient
glacial lake help to provide a fertile agricultural region. Some drumlins
are found in the valley. Occasional linear ridges, such as Mt. Tom
(366 m/1202 ft), near Holyoke, are composed of ancient
lava flows that have been tilted and then eroded.
The regions of W Massachusetts are complex. The Western New
England Upland, as it becomes rougher, grades into the Green Mts.,
which are far more pronounced in the N. Here, as in S Vermont, the
region is more a deeply cut plateau than a linear mountain ridge.
Separating the Green Mts. section from the Taconic Mts. is
the deep and narrow valley of the Hoosic and Housatonic rivers,
the Berkshire Valley. Some patches of dairying remain in the wider
S part of the valley, but most of the area is nonagricultural. The
Taconics, lower than in Vermont, contain the highest point in Massachusetts,
Mt. Greylock.
The Charles R. is the longest river wholly within Massachusetts, but
the Housatonic and the Connecticut rivers are more important. Disastrous
floods have occurred on both, and many communities, including Northampton,
Greenfield, and Springfield, are protected by elaborate flood-control
levees built after the 1936 flood on the Connecticut R. The Merrimack
is an important river of the NE part of the state.
Quabbin Reservoir, on the Swift R. in the central part of
Massachusetts, is the largest body of fresh water in the state.
Wachusett Reservoir, near Worcester, is another big artificial lake.
Both are used to supply water to the Boston area. Small lakes abound
in the state, and many are bordered by vacation cottages. Lake Chaubunagungamaugg,
near Webster, is usually called Webster Lake, because the Nipmuc
Indian name is difficult to pronounce and spell. The full version
of the Indian name is said to be the longest place-name in North
America.
Massachusetts has a humid continental climate; summers are
typically warmer and winters milder than farther N. The W part of
the state generally has cooler temperatures than the E region. Cape
Cod and the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket,
however, usually have cooler summer temperatures because of the
moderating effects of the ocean, which also give the region somewhat warmer
temperatures in winter. Pittsfield, in the W, has an average annual
temperature of about 7.2° C (about 45° F); Boston,
in the E, about 10.8° C (about 51.5° F); and Nantucket,
about 9.7° C (49.5° F). The recorded temperature
in Massachusetts has ranged from –37.2° C (–35° F),
in 1981 at Chester in the W, to 41.7° C (107° F),
in 1975 at New Bedford, in the SE, and Chester.
| MASSACHUSETTS AVERAGE CLIMATE |
| |
Boston |
Worcester |
| Average January temperature range |
–5° to 2.2° C |
23° to 36° F |
–8.9° to –0.6° C |
16° to 31° F |
| Average July temperature range |
18.3° to 27.2° C |
65° to 81° F |
16.1° to 26.1° C |
61° to 79° F |
| Average annual temperature |
10.8° C |
51.5° F |
8.3° C |
47° F |
| Average annual precipitation |
1092 mm |
43 in |
1143 mm |
45 in |
| Average annual snowfall |
1067 mm |
42 in |
1880 mm |
74 in |
| Mean number of days per year with appreciable precipitation |
129 |
128 |
| Average daily relative humidity |
65% |
66% |
| Mean number of clear days per year |
99 |
90 |
Annual precipitation totals about 1120 mm (about 44 in)
in
most of the state, with distribution roughly equal between summer and
winter. Some higher elevations receive up to about 1195 mm (about
47 in), and some lower elevations in the E get as little as 1016
mm (40 in) of moisture per year. Some mountains in the W get as
much as 1905 mm (75 in) of snow annually, and much of the E receives
some 1070 mm (some 42 in). Cape Cod and the islands usually receive
only about 635 mm (about 25 in) of snow. The coastal areas are prone
to severe storms, known as northeasters, and to occasional hurricanes.
The state is usually struck by several tornadoes each year; a
particularly
damaging tornado battered the Worcester area in 1953.
Forests cover about 55% of the land area of
Massachusetts. Deciduous
trees make up most of the forests, but evergreens are common along
the coast and in the higher elevations of the New England Upland and
the Green Mts. The typical N hardwoods of birch, beech, maple, and
oak cover the largest area. Among the common softwoods are larch,
white and red pine, and hemlock. Other plants include rhododendron,
bloodroot, wild columbine, arbutis, violets, azaleas, and mountain
laurel.
Animals abound in Massachusetts. The white-tailed deer is
the largest game animal; small mammals include skunk, raccoon, beaver,
weasel, opossum, gray and red squirrel, woodchuck, fox, and rabbit.
Among the state’s freshwater fish are trout, bass, pickerel, and perch. Lobsters, clams, scallops, bluefish, cod, herring, and
flounder inhabit the state’s marine waters.
The limited mineral resources of Massachusetts include building
materials such as granite and marble, sand and gravel, clay, peat,
lime, and coal.
According to the 2000 census, Massachusetts had
6,349,097 inhabitants, an increase of 5.5% over 1990. The average
population density was 809.8 people per sq mi of land area; higher
population concentrations were in the E third of the state, where
most of the people lived. Whites made up 84.5% of the population
(down from 89.8% in 1990 and 93.5% in 1980) and blacks 5.4%; additional groups included 15,015 American Indians and Alaska Natives, 238,124 Asians, and 2489 Native Hawaiians and
other Pacific Islanders. (These figures do not include the 2.3% of
the population who reported more than one race.) More than 428,729
residents (6.8%) claimed Hispanic ancestry, nearly double the number
in 1990. The state’s largest cities were Boston, the capital;
Worcester; Springfield; Lowell; and Cambridge.
According to a 2000 survey, Roman Catholics constituted the largest single religious group, accounting for 48.7% of the total population and 76% of all religious adherents in the state. Numerous Protestant groups were represented, including the United Church of Christ (1.9%), Episcopal Church (1.6%), and United Methodist Church (1%). Jews comprised an estimated 4.3% of the population, and Muslims less than 1%.
In 2000 about 91% of the people lived in areas then defined as urban (according to a broadened government definition).
| POPULATION OF MASSACHUSETTS SINCE 1790 |
| Year of Census |
Population |
Classified As Urban |
| 1790 |
379,000 |
13% |
| 1820 |
523,000 |
23% |
| 1850 |
995,000 |
51% |
| 1880 |
1,783,000 |
74% |
| 1900 |
2,805,000 |
86% |
| 1920 |
3,852,000 |
90% |
| 1940 |
4,317,000 |
89% |
| 1960 |
5,149,000 |
84% |
| 1980 |
5,737,000 |
84% |
| 1990 |
6,016,425 |
84% |
| 2000 |
6,349,097 |
91% |
| POPULATION OF TEN LARGEST CITIES IN MASSACHUSETTS |
| |
2000 Census |
1990 Census |
| Boston |
589,141 |
574,283 |
| Worcester |
172,648 |
169,759 |
| Springfield |
152,082 |
156,983 |
| Lowell |
105,167 |
103,439 |
| Cambridge |
101,355 |
95,802 |
| Brockton |
94,788 |
92,788 |
| New Bedford |
93,768 |
99,922 |
| Fall River |
91,938 |
92,703 |
| Lynn |
89,050 |
81,245 |
| Quincy |
88,025 |
84,985 |
Massachusetts is known for its many fine educational institutions
as well as its historical sites and cultural institutions.
The first public school in the U.S. colonies, the
Boston Latin
School, was opened by the Puritans in 1635. In 1647 the Massachusetts
Bay Colony government required that towns containing 50 families
or more have an elementary school. In 1821 the first public high
school in the U.S., English High School, in Boston, was opened, and in
1852 Massachusetts became the first state to pass legislation
making school attendance mandatory. During the late 1830s and ’40s
Horace Mann had done much to improve education in the state.
In 2002 the state’s public had some 983,000 elementary and 262,000 secondary school students. Massachusetts also is known for many excellent private schools. In 2002 there were more than 430,000 students enrolled in institutions of higher education. These include Harvard University, in Cambridge (founded 1636), the oldest university in the state and one of the oldest and most esteemed in the nation (since 1999 also including Radcliffe College); Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1861), also in Cambridge; Williams College (1793), in Williamstown; Amherst College (1821), in Amherst; Smith College (1871), in Northampton; Wellesley College (1870), in Wellesley; Tufts University (1852), in Medford; Boston University (1839), in Boston; Boston College (1863), in Newton; the College of the Holy Cross (1843) and Clark University (1887), in Worcester; Brandeis University (1948), in Waltham; Mount Holyoke College (1837), in South Hadley; and the University of Massachusetts (1863), with campuses in several locations.
Some of the finest U.S. art museums are here, including
the Museum
of Fine Arts (1870), in Boston, known for its American, European, and
Asian treasures; the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (1900),
in Boston, noted for its Italian Renaissance art; the Worcester
Art Museum (1896), in Worcester; the Fogg Art Museum (1895) and
the Busch-Reisinger Museum (1901) of Harvard University, in Cambridge;
and the Addison Gallery of American Art (1931), in Andover. Also
of note are the De Cordova Museum and Sculpture Park (1948), in
Lincoln; the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute (1957), in
Williamstown; the American Textile History Museum (1960), in Lowell;
the Norman Rockwell Museum (1967), in Stockbridge; the Museum of
Science (1830), in Boston; the New Bedford Whaling Museum (1903),
in New Bedford; the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
(1866), in Cambridge; and the Peabody Essex Museum of Salem (1799),
with exhibits on maritime history and ethnology.
The first library in the U.S. colonies was established
in
1638, when John Harvard donated his collection of books to Harvard
College. The library has since amassed more than 11 million volumes.
The Boston Public Library (1852) and the Boston Athenaeum (1807)
also house important collections of books. The John F. Kennedy
Presidential
Library-Museum (1979), in Boston, contains papers of President Kennedy
and his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, a U.S. attorney general and
senator.
Boston is the home of many of the state’s entertainment
institutions, including several theaters, the noted Boston Symphony
Orchestra (1881), a number of ballet and modern dance organizations,
and the Opera Company of Boston. The Tanglewood estate in Lenox
serves as the summer home of the Boston Symphony, and summer theater
is particularly popular in Stockbridge and on Cape Cod.
Massachusetts has many historical sites, some
commemorating colonial
days and the revolutionary war period. Among the most famous are
Plymouth Rock, where the Pilgrims are said to have landed in 1620, and
Plimoth Plantation, a reconstruction of the first Pilgrim community,
in Plymouth; Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site, including
a re-creation of the first integrated iron works in North America
(begun 1646), in Saugus; Boston National Historical Park, encompassing
several noted buildings such as Faneuil Hall and Old North Church;
Minute Man National Historical Park, containing the sites in Lexington
and Concord of the first fighting of the American Revolution; and
Salem Maritime National Historic Site. Among the many historical
homes in Massachusetts are those of Paul Revere, in Boston; of Mary
Baker Eddy, founder of the Christian Science movement, in Lynn;
of the poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson, in Concord; and of
the poet Emily Dickinson, in Amherst. Adams National Historic Site,
in Quincy, includes the home of Presidents John Adams and John Quincy
Adams as well as other noted members of the Adams family, and John
Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site, in Brookline, contains
the birthplace of President Kennedy.
Massachusetts’s ocean coastline, rivers, lakes, and mountains
provide ample opportunity for swimming, hiking, boating, fishing,
hunting, golf, and winter sports. Cape Cod National Seashore includes
ocean beaches and duneland. The first 25-mile leg of the 100-mile Mahican-Mohawk
Trail, an Indian trail that is being re-created as a hiking trail,
was dedicated in 1997.
The state’s professional sports teams include the
Boston Red Sox (major league baseball), the Boston Celtics (basketball),
the Boston Bruins (ice hockey), and the New England Patriots (football),
in Foxboro.
Massachusetts has a comprehensive communications systemof AM and FM radio broadcasting
stations and 20 television stations. WGBH-TV, in Boston, is a noted
noncommercial broadcasting station. The first radio station in the
state, WGI in Medford, was licensed in 1920. WBZ-TV in Boston, which
was Massachusetts’s first commercial television station,
commenced operations in 1948. The Publick Occurrences Both
Forreign and Domestick, the first newspaper in the U.S.
colonies, began publication in Boston in 1690. In the early 2000s
Massachusetts had 32 daily newspapers with a total daily circulation
of approximately 1.5 million. Influential newspapers included the Boston
Globe; the Boston Herald; the Union-News,
published in Springfield; and the Telegram Gazette,
published in Worcester. The Christian Science Monitor,
published in Boston, enjoys an international readership.
The first English-language book published in the colonies
was the Bay Psalm Book, printed in Cambridge in
1640. The Boston area is now a leading U.S. book-publishing center..
In 2003 an estimated 64% of household in the state had computers and 58% had Internet access.
Massachusetts is governed under a constitution adopted in
1780, as amended. Amendments may be proposed by the state legislature
or by an initiative petition signed by a specified number of voters.
To become effective, an amendment must be approved by a majority
of persons voting on the issue in a general election.
The chief executive of Massachusetts is a governor, who
is
popularly elected to a 4-year term and may be reelected any number
of times. The same regulations apply to the lieutenant governor,
who succeeds the governor should the latter resign, die, or be removed
from office. The governor is assisted by the governor’s council, also known as the executive council, which is made up of the lieutenant governor and eight other persons popularly electedto 2-year terms. Other elected state officials in Massachusetts include the secretary of the commonwealth, the attorney general, the treasurer and receiver general, and the state auditor.
The bicameral Massachusetts General Court consists of a senate and a house of representatives. The 40 members of the senate and
the 160 members of the house are popularly elected to serve 2-year
terms.
Massachusetts’s highest court, the supreme judicial
court, is made up of a chief justice and six associate judges. Other
major tribunals are the appeals court, with 25 judges, and the superior
court, with 82 judges. Judges of the three courts are appointed
by the governor with the consent of the governor’s council and serve
until the age of 70. Other judicial components include housing courts, land courts, district courts, juvenile courts, probate and family courts, and the Boston municipal court system.
The 14 counties of Massachusetts serve mainly as
judicial districts, and their governments have little power. The
state’s local
government resides, for the most part, in its 50 chartered cities and
its 301 incorporated towns. Massachusetts cities use the mayor-council
form of government. Towns, which typically include several villages and
other communities, are mainly governed by yearly citizens’ meetings. In the early 2000s, the state also had 82 school districts and 403 special districts.
Massachusetts elects 2 senators and 10 representatives to the
U.S. Congress. The state has 12 electoral votes in presidential
elections.
In presidential elections since the 1930s,
Massachusetts voters
have usually supported the Democratic nominee. The Kennedy
family—including
John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the U.S. (1961–63), and Edward
M. Kennedy, a U.S. senator (1962– )—has
played a leading role in state politics. Other prominent Democratic
politicians have included Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill (1912–94),
who served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years (1953–87)
and was Speaker of the House from 1977 until his retirement; Michael S. Dukakis (1933– ), a three-term governor (1975–79; 1983–1991) who lost to Republican George H. W. Bush, in the 1988 presidential election; Barney Frank (1940– ), an outspoken liberal who, while serving in the House (1981– ), has become a leading advocate for gay rights; and John Kerry, who won reelection to a fourth term in the U.S. Senate in 2002 and lost the 2004 presidential race to George W. Bush. Prominent Republicans who have represented the state in the U.S. Senate include Henry Cabot Lodge; his grandson Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.; and Edward Brooke, the first African-American to be popularly elected to a Senate seat
Massachusetts was an important center of commerce, fishing, and shipbuilding in colonial times. In the early 19th century its
economy became increasingly dominated by manufacturing, especially
the production of textiles and footwear. These industries declined
in the 20th century, but manufacturing remained a leading economic
activity. The Boston area became known as a center for advanced
research and for the production of high-technology electronic items.
The state also has a big summer tourist industry. Boston is a major financial and insurance center.
| MASSACHUSETTS STATE ECONOMY |
| STATE BUDGET (in thousands) |
| General revenue |
$41,615,765 |
| General expenditure |
$38,405,514 |
| Accumulated debt |
$50,981,152 |
 |
| STATE TAXES PER CAPITA |
$2,628 |
|
| PERSONAL INCOME, PER CAPITA |
$44,289 |
|
| POPULATION BELOW POVERTY LEVEL |
9.4% |
|
| EMPLOYMENT DISTRIBUTION |
| Management, business, finance |
527,000 |
| Professional and related |
796,000 |
| Services |
498,000 |
| Sales and related |
351,000 |
| Office and administrative support |
440,000 |
| Farming, fishing, forestry |
too small for statistical reliability |
| Construction and extraction |
196,000 |
| Installation, maintenance, repair |
86,000 |
| Production |
184,000 |
| Transportation and moving |
128,000 |
|
| GROSS STATE PRODUCT |
$328.5 billion |
|
| NET FARM INCOME |
$40 million |
| Principal products |
greenhouse products, cranberries, dairy products |
Farming in Massachusetts is relatively unimportant
economically.
The state has some 6900 farms, which have an average size of 40
ha (99 acres). About three quarters of the annual income from agriculture
is derived from the sale of crops, and the rest comes from sales
of livestock and livestock products. The most valuable crops include
greenhouse and nursery products (mainly flowers and shrubs),
cranberries, hay, apples, tobacco, and potatoes and other vegetables. Principal
livestock products are dairy items, eggs, beef cattle, hogs, turkeys,
and sheep and lambs. Major farming areas are the Connecticut Valley
Lowland and the SE part of the state.
Forestry is a minor industry in Massachusetts, but fishing
is of considerable importance. In 2004 the fish catch was valued at $326 million, among the highest in the nation. The principal species landed include cod, flounder, haddock, hake, pollock, swordfish, tuna, scallops, clams, shrimp, and lobster. The major fishing ports in the state are Gloucester, Boston, and New Bedford (once a center of the Atlantic whaling industry).
The value of Massachusetts’s (nonfuel) mineral output, in 2005 was only about $208 million. The main minerals produced are granite, marble, basalt, and other stone;
sand and gravel; clay; peat; and lime.
Massachusetts remains an important manufacturing state, but its manufacturing sector has been in sharp decline. This branch of the economy accounted for about 13% of annual gross state product in 2003. In that year, 325,758 people were employed in manufacturing, down almost 60,000 from the number just three years earlier. The principal products include industrial machinery, such as textile-, shoe-, and paper-making machinery, office equipment, and engines; electronic equipment, especially high-technology
electronic components; and precision instruments, notably scientific measuring devices. Other major manufactures included textiles, clothing, fabricated metal, paper and paper products, processed food, footwear, and printed materials. The Boston area is the state’s principal
manufacturing region; many firms engaged in the research and development
of electronic equipment are located along Route 128, a highway that
forms an arc around Boston. Other important manufacturing areas
are centered in Springfield, Worcester, Lawrence, Fall River, New
Bedford, Lowell, and Pittsfield.
The tourist industry is extremely important; in 2003 domestic travelers spent about $10 billion in the state. There also were more than 800,000 foreign visitors, and about 20 million tourists visited state or national parks there. Attractions include the summer vacation
areas of Cape Cod and nearby Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket
islands and the historical sites and cultural institutions of the
Boston area. Many travelers also visit the upland areas of the Berkshire Hills
in the W; especially popular here is the summer Berkshire Music
Festival at the Tanglewood estate in Lenox.
Massachusetts is served by an extensive system of transportation facilities,
which tend to be concentrated in the E part of the state. It has about 58,000 km (about 36,000 mi) of highway miles roads, including 920 km (570 mi) of interstate highways. The Massachusetts Turnpike extends from the New York State border, in the W, to Boston, in the E. Amtrak trains along the Washington-New York-Boston corridor served 9.4 million passengers in fiscal year 2006.
The Port of Boston is the leading seaport of Massachusetts; other
major freight-handling ports include Fall River and Salem. Logan
International Airport, in Boston, is the busiest of the state’s
airports.
In the early 12000s Massachusetts had an installed electric generating capacity of about 14 million kw, and annual output was about 40-50 billion kwh. Approximately 85% of the electricity
was produced in conventional steam generators using petroleum products
and other fossil fuels, and almost all the rest was generated in
nuclear installations.
Before the arrival of English settlers, six major Indian tribes
lived in what is now Massachusetts: the Massachuset tribe in the
area where Boston is today, the Wampanoag south of Boston, the Nauset
on Cape Cod, the Pennacook and Nipmuc in northern Massachusetts, and the Pocumtuc in the Connecticut River valley.
Giovanni da Verrazano, sailing in the service of France, explored
the Massachusetts coast in 1524, but no settlement resulted from
his voyage. In the early 1600s two Englishmen made important explorations: Bartholomew
Gosnold landed at Provincetown on Cape Cod in 1602, and Capt. John
Smith sailed along the coast in 1614. Smith gave New England its
name and later wrote a travel account that contributed greatly to further
explorations.
The colonial period of Massachusetts’s history began
when the Pilgrim Fathers—members of a dissident religious community
that had broken away from the Church of England—arrived at Plymouth in December 1620. Theirs was the first permanent settlement by Europeans in Massachusetts. The Pilgrims had been preceded by traders, explorers, and fishermen beginning decades earlier, who did not start settlements, but whose arrival had helped spread diseases that decimated the Indian population.
Even before they landed (initially at Cape Cod in November), the Pilgrims made history.
They drew up the famous Mayflower Compact that established a theoretical
framework for the government of the Plymouth Colony. The male signers
became a “civil body politic,” who agreed to conduct
their business for the “general good of the colony.”
The Pilgrims suffered extreme hardship in the early years.
The bitter New England winters took a heavy toll; half the settlers
died during the first winter. The strong leadership of Gov. William
Bradford and Capt. Miles Standish, coupled with the assistance of
those Indians with which they maintained peaceful alliances, stabilized the colony and enabled it to survive.
Within a decade English people began to swarm into Massachusetts.
New settlements appeared around Plymouth. In the late 1620s settlers
arrived in the Boston area. These were Puritans, religious dissenters
who, like the Pilgrims, were dissatisfied with the religious atmosphere
in England. In 1630 a fleet of ships brought over a thousand Puritan
settlers led by John Winthrop, beginning what is called the Great
Migration. These settlers founded the towns of Boston, Charlestown,
Dorchester, Lynn, Medford, Roxbury, and Watertown, which became
the heartland of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Although they came to the New World to seek religious
freedom
for themselves, neither the Pilgrims nor the Puritans extended
religious
freedom to those who dissented from their faith. Their intolerance
led to the hanging (1660) of Mary Dyer and other Quakers and the
expulsion from Massachusetts of the religious dissidents Anne
Hutchinson and Roger Williams. Williams resettled in Rhode Island in
1636 and became a leading figure in the movement for religious toleration.
As the coastal settlements expanded, relations with the Indians began to deteriorate. Antagonism led to warfare. In 1637 Massachusetts and Connecticut settlers joined in a war against
the Pequot Indians of Connecticut that virtually annihilated the
tribe. In King Philip’s War (1675–76) the English destroyed
the Wampanoag and their allies, the Narragansett of Rhode Island. Many of the Indians who were not killed were sent to the Caribbean as slaves.
Massachusetts’s charter was revoked by King Charles
II in 1684, but eight years later Plymouth Colony and Massachusetts
Bay were united under a new charter granted by WilliamIII and Mary II.
The colony figured prominently in the French and Indian Wars and
was mainly responsible for the successful New England expedition
against the French at Louisbourg (1745).
Massachusetts also led colonial resistance to British taxation
in the years before the American Revolution. The Boston Massacre
(March 5, 1770), in which British troops killed five colonial taunters,
was a great stimulant for revolution. Three years later, in the
famous Boston Tea Party, townsmen disguised as Indians and led by
the fiery Samuel Adams dumped a cargo of British tea into Boston
Harbor. This militant action further fanned the flames of rebellion.
In April 1775 the American Revolution broke out at Lexington
Green when a band of Massachusetts militiamen resolutely challenged
a British force searching for munitions. Lexington was followed
by the battle at the North Bridge in nearby Concord, where the “shot
heard ’round the world” was fired. Lexington and Concord
became symbols of resistance for the Americans as the Revolution
erupted in full fury.
One of the most dramatic events of the war was the Battle
of Bunker Hill (June 1775). The British drove the Americans from
this key height in Boston but suffered more than a thousand casualties.
Shortly thereafter, a colonial force under George Washington laid
siege to the town. After the British evacuated Boston in March 1776,
no further fighting took place in Massachusetts.
In the early national period, Massachusetts underwent a profound
economic revolution. Freed from British restraints, its ships and
sailors roamed the world, opening up new trade routes and carrying
goods from nation to nation. Trade with China and other nations
of the Orient became an important element in Massachusetts’s
economy. The state’s maritime interests opposed the War
of 1812 as a hindrance to trade. The Federalist party served as
their voice, and even secession from the Union was considered. Only
the threat of a direct attack by the British could stimulate Massachusetts
into a patriotic posture.
After the war, overseas trade resumed, and
Massachusetts became an important industrial state, manufacturing textiles and shoes.
What set Massachusetts off from the other northeastern states was
the emergence of a remarkably talented group of men and women who
became national figures in a wide spectrum of activities, from art
to literature to social reform. These included the writers Ralph
Waldo Emerson, John Greenleaf Whittier, Henry David Thoreau, Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Emily Dickinson, and
Herman Melville; the antislavery leaders William Lloyd Garrison and
Wendell Phillips; the architect Henry Hobson Richardson; the jurist
Oliver Wendell Holmes; the historians Francis Parkman, Henry Adams, and
William Hickling Prescott; the sculptor Horatio Greenough; the
painter John Singer Sargent; and the reformers Horace Mann, Dorothea
Dix, and Lucy Stone. It was an amazing galaxy of talent for so small
a state. Perhaps the key to this powerful intellectual group was
the Massachusetts educational system, one of the strongest in the
nation.
The state’s booming industries attracted many immigrants, especially from Ireland and Italy, between the mid-19th and early 20th Century.Modern centuries. Tensions developed between the mostly Catholic newcomers, who aligned themselves with the Democratic party, and the established communities, which were predominantly Protestant and Republican. Conflict between immigrants and the Yankee elite underlay the Lawrence textile workers strike (1912), the Boston police strike (1919), and the Sacco-Vanzetti Case in the 1920s.
The decline of the once powerful
textile and leather industries from the Great Depression to the post-World
War II era was a severe economic setbackfor Massachusetts. The later explosive growth
of high-technology industry has more than compensated for the earlier
decline, however. The greater Boston area, in particular, has become
an important center for scientific research and development. Although
many of its old, family-owned firms have merged into national corporations,
Massachusetts continues to spawn new companies at a high rate.
Like most highly urbanized, industrialized states, Massachusetts has faced challenges in combating environmental pollution, financing public education and social services, reducing traffic congestion, dealing with rising costs for energy and health care, controlling crime, and coping with racial unrest.
Democrats in general, and the Kennedys in particular, have had a leading role in state politics for many decades. A member of the Kennedy family has served in Congress or the White House since 1946, when the 29-year-old John F. Kennedy won his first election to the U.S. House of Representatives; the late president’s brother, Edward ("Ted") Kennedy, won his eighth full term in the U.S. Senate in 2006. One area where Republicans have successfully bucked the Democratic trend is in elections for governor; the GOP held the state governorship for 16 years, from 1991 to 2007. The most recent Republican to occupy the governor’s office was Mitt Romney (1947– ). During his 4-year term, Massachusetts became the first state to establish a system of mandatory health insurance coverage for all state residents. Over Romney’s opposition, and based on a ruling by the supreme judicial court, the state began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2004.
Romney, the son of former Michigan governor George Romney (1907–95), declined to run for a second term, choosing instead to seek the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. In November 2006, voters elected a Democrat, Deval Patrick (1956– ), who was inaugurated in January 2007 as the first African-American governor in the state’s history.