"Boston" a Boston Travel Page by smschley

The first English immigrant to settle in Boston was the Reverend William Blackstone. He came by himself in 1629, to a peninsula by a stream, called by the local Algonquin inhabitants, Shawmet. A year later Blackstone invited John Winthrop and some Puritan settlers to visit Shawmut who had left England to escape religious persecution and to establish a pious Puritan state. Ironically, they wanted to leave the Massachusetts Bay Colony due to the harsh, intolerant society that the Puritans had created. In keeping with their view of tolerance they limited citizenship to church members until 1664.

The citizenship still considered themselves loyal British subjects, but this began to change in the 1730's when the Crown increased taxes on the colonists to help replenish the treasury. Boston became a leading center of colonial resistance as a great philosophical distance began to grow between the Colonies and Britain.

The final break came when the British Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend Acts of 1767, led to the Boston Massacre in 1770. The Tea Act of 1773 resulted with The Boston Tea Party. The British responded by closing the ports and bringing in more troops to contain the dissidents. On the evening of April 18, 1775, the British dispatched troops to the towns of Lexington and Concord to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock, and to seize arms which the colonists were storing. Paul Revere and William Dawes rode through the night to warn the colonists of the approaching soldiers. The next morning, on Lexington Green, "the shot heard round the world" was fired, and the American Revolution began.

Today Boston is a city of history, of neighborhoods, of education, and has been called the biggest small town in America. It has a rich sports tradition, a large and varied selection of museums, theatres and Music centers, and a great place for Chowder and Lobster as I can attest.