%uThe Founding of Boston%u and other Massachusetts, MA General Tips

Favorite Thing: Boston was first settled in 1630 when King Charles I of England assigned land to the Massachusetts Bay Company, a large group of Puritans. Puritans were people who left England to pursue religious freedom in the New World. Eleven ships carrying 1,000 Puritans left Boston, England and arrived at the mouth of the Charles River.

The small settlement that was established on the south bank of the Charles River was called Trimountain at first, but was eventually renamed Boston, after the town the settlers left in England.

As the small town grew, schools were established. In 1635, the Boston Latin School became the first public school in the 13 British colonies, and the first university was founded in 1636 in Cambridge. It was named after John Harvard, who donated his personal library to the new university.

One of the most notorious chapters in American history took place in nearby Salem when, in 1692, the Salem Witch Trials resulted in the hanging of many innocent people.


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Favorite Thing: It was in Boston, the most important city in the 13 British colonies, that ideas of independence began, and where the American Revolution started. The main quarrel the colonists had with the British government was the burdensome taxation policies imposed on the colonies. One of the rallying cries of those opposed to the taxation was "No taxation without representation."

Problems started between the colonists and the British in 1770, when British troops sent to protect tax collectors fired upon a group of jeering and stone-throwing protesters. Five Americans were killed in what became known as the Boston Massacre.

In 1773, the Boston Tea Party occurred when protesters disguised as Indians boarded British East India Company ships and threw bales of tea into Boston Harbor to protest high taxes on the tea.

In April 1775, patriot Paul Revere made his famous "midnight ride" to warn of the march of British troops to Lexington and Concord. The British were intending to capture Samuel Adams who was at Lexington, and then seize arms that had been stashed at Concord. There was a skirmish at Lexington Green in which eight American militiamen were killed by "the shot heard 'round the world."

In June 1775, the Battle of Bunker Hill became the bloodiest battle of the Revolution, when militiamen from all over New England came to Boston to try to oust the British troops. They were unsuccessful, and the colonists suffered their first major defeat of the war.

And, in an act of defiance, the Declaration of Independence was read out loud from the balcony of the Old State House in 1776.


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Favorite Thing: After independence, the Industrial Revolution brought prosperity to Boston, which became a major center of textile and shoe manufacturing. The city grew, and the Back Bay was filled in and neighboring settlements were annexed.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, however, Boston declined economically. Many of the older neighborhoods became dangerous slums, rampant with crime. One part of the city was even called the "Combat Zone."

Nowadays, modern Boston has turned around and is booming economically, in what has been described as the "Massachusetts Miracle." The economic recovery was brought about by an influx of finance, high-tech industries, and tourism. Areas that were once slums are being gentrified and restored, and the city's cultural life has been revitalized. In fact, Boston is now one of the most desireable cities in which to live in all of the United States. The city is the largest in Massachusetts, as well as New England, with about 7,520,000 inhabitants in its metropolitan area.


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