Things to do / Travel Guide
Prehistory to Colonial History around Boston, Massachusetts
According to archeological excavations, the first humans, ancestors of the Algonquian tribes of North America, settled in coastal Massachusetts and Rhode Island about 10,000 years ago. It was members of this tribe who lived in the area when the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock in 1620. The Algonquians shared their extensive knowledge of farming, hunting, and fishing with the newcomers, and in 1621, the Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving. The original Pilgrims were quickly followed by other groups of Puritans, who established Salem, and New England's largest and most important city to this day: Boston. These colonists came as members of the Massachusetts Bay Company. The Puritans were strong believers in the intellectual life, and coastal Massachusetts can claim many American “firsts” thanks to their influence. Harvard was established as the first university in North America, in close-by Cambridge, 1636. The nation's first public library, the Boston Public Library, opened its doors in Boston in 1653, and the first newspaper reaching all the 13 Colonies, the , rolled off the presses in 1704, again from Boston.
The Puritans also gave Massachusetts the institution that formed the bedrock of American democracy: the town meeting. In these town meetings, every taxpayer had an equal voice, and the idea of “no taxation without representation” was born.
However, the Puritans of Massachusetts showed less tolerance when it came to differing religious beliefs. In 1636, Roger Williams, a clergyman who had fled from England because of his own controversial beliefs concerning civic and religious liberties, was forced to flee from Massachusetts to nearby Rhode Island on account of this lack of tolerance. He implemented a policy of both political and religious freedom in the settlement he founded. That settlement was Providence, which today is Rhode Island's capital city. Williams' founding spirit of tolerance encouraged Jews of Spanish descent to immigrate to Newport as early as 1658, forming the first Jewish settlement in the United States.
A century and a half later, England decided to tighten its grip on the Colonies by instituting a series of unfair taxes. The infamous Tea Act of 1773 led to the Boston Tea Party, in which a group of colonists dressed as Indians dumped the cargo of three ships laden with tea into Boston Harbor. And when war broke out soon after, Rhode Island was the first of the 13 to declare its independence from England.
Post-Revolution to the Present around Boston, Massachusetts
After the end of the American Revolutionary War in 1783, the region experienced economic ups and downs. The first trickling of change came in 1793, when Samuel Slater discovered a way to successfully power his cotton mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island with water. Slater was elemental in the birth of the American Industrial Revolution and, by the close of the century, the region's textile factories were supplying almost one-third of the country's woolen goods.
In the 19th century, as fortunes were also being made in shipbuilding, maritime trade, and other sea-related industries, the region became home to a significant number of the fabulously wealthy who needed a convenient place to enjoy their leisure time. Newport, Rhode Island fit the bill perfectly. Newport's golden age occurred during the 1870s - the fabled Gilded Age - when families such as the Astors and the Vanderbilts built their summer “cottages” along the oceanfront.
During the twentieth century, the fortunes of the region ebbed and flowed with the course of international events. Thanks to an abundant supply of skilled workers and a proximity to world markets, the region's economy expanded during periods of war, and especially from World War I through the Vietnam War. After the Vietnam War, the economic focus shifted to the high-tech industry.
And in a little corner of south-eastern Connecticut, it shifted to gambling.
Foxwoods Resort Casino, the largest casino in the world, began life in 1986 as a bingo hall that was founded and operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Nation of Native Americans. In 1992 the Pequots added table games. In 1993, the first slot machines arrived - since then, the pay-out enriches both the Native Americans running the casinos, as well as the grateful state of Connecticut. The nearby Mohegan Sun, with a similar history and the world's second-largest casino, opened its doors in 1996.
Today, coastal Massachusetts and Rhode Island is still an important region for American intellectual and cultural life. The same independent spirit that made it the scene of the American Revolution and the Industrial Revolution has made it a leader in high-tech, medical research, and other information-driven industries. At the same time, the region has preserved the historical and scenic beauty that made it one of the United States' most popular tourist destinations since the Pilgrims.
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