Massachusetts Bay Colony

The Massachusetts Bay Colony, founded in 1624 by the leaders of the Massachusetts Company, was an English settlement that became one of the most successful colonies in American History. The first attempt to colonize the Massachusetts area in 1624 proved unsuccessful as a short-lived settlement in Cape Ann, but another attempt in 1628 manifested in what became the large and prosperous colony it was known as throughout all of Colonial America. The area was home to a basic arrangement of several elected governers acting under the precepts of the Puritan belief system. Also serving a major part of this colony's history was the brutal and bloody conflict between colonists and the area's indigenous people, ending in the extinction of several Indian tribes and the abandonment of the territory by any surviving natives. Economically, Massachusetts Bay flourished as a port for incoming trade with its waterfront location and high merchant population. The surrounding forests and lakes also made industries such as trapping, lumbering, fishing, and boat construction successful in the area. The area was mainly unclouded by the controversy of slavery and indentured servitude, as few colonists owned slaves or servants, and those captured in disputes with Native American tribes were traded by the colony's merchants. As time went on, the slave trade became more and more significant in the economy of this group as merchants became more involved, although few ever participated in slave-ownership themselves. But perhaps the greatest reason for the success of this colony was their firm religious beliefs. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was established by militant Puritans who left for the New World to pursue religious freedom, and the colony was predetermined by it's first governer, John Winthrop to be 'the city upon the hill' spoken of allegorically in the Bible as an example of Christian piety and goodness. This mission served as the motivation behind the strict lifestyles of these colonists, and was made as the ultimate goal in their actions lest they bring shame to both themselves and God. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was shaped mainly by factors such as their hostile relations to Native Americans, their high trade industry through fishing and slave trade, and their strict religious beliefs, which impacted every aspect of their lives.

The Massachusetts Bay Colony was formed as charter colony founded by the Massachusetts Company. Despite their overarching belief that God was their ultimate leader, leading them to call their government system a theocracy, they acknowledged that a more concrete government would need to be established. They resided under the reign of a few leaders and governers, who were strongly affected by the Puritan religious leaders and clergy members. Although these men were elected, making the technical term for this colony's government a democracy, the right to vote was limited to 'freemen', or white landowners who were not under legal restaint and professed Puritan faith. This uniformity in voters lead to simple and sometimes unanimous elections of leaders who held Puritan beliefs and followed their way of life. One of the most notable of these leaders was the first governer of the colony, John Winthrop. On the voyage from Europe to America, he gave a speech, later entitled 'City Upon A Hill', which would go down in history as the declaration of Massachussetts Bay Colony's foundational beliefs and goals in establishing their colony. However, despite these goals of proving their Christian goodness to others through actions, their relations with the area's native peoples went from initially mediocre to bloody war based on cultural differences and conflict. These conflicts were mainly caused by the rigid intolerance of the Puritans for the Indians' way of life, and increasing attempts to convert these natives lead to arising hostilities and the decrease of attempts to coexist peacefully. In addition to this, the vague and confusing terms of the charter which established the colony's boundaries lead to border disputes, which exacerbated their negative views of Europeans. These views were formed based on the Dutch colonial expansion that had begun to press their territories further and further away from the coastline, endangering their main location for fishing and trade. This dissention finally escaladed into a conflict in 1636 known as the Pequot War, during which colonists joined together with the Mohegan and Narragansett tribes and burned a Pequot village, killing those who tried to flee and in total accouting for the deaths of several hundred and effectively ending the Pequot resistance. The colony then continued to grow until 1675, during which another combat with natives arose, later to be called King Philip's War. This war began in part due to the incorporation of merchants as middlemen in the fur-trading business, who employed shrewd tactics to increase their profit, which depleted the natives' resources and caused many of them to go into debt. This was seen as an enormous burden by natives, who begrudged this off all colonists despite their actual involvement. The natives also accused colonists of damaging the ecosystem through their lumbering, fishing, and hunting industries, which weakened the area's game populations, and for introducion domesticated animals such as pigs to the area, who ate wild plants that Indians had depended on as vital sources of food. The population of Indians began to decline sharply due to these changes, and the remainder were demoralized by their leaders' inability to stop the Europeans. Europeans even began to attempt to persuade the Wampanoag Indians to renounce their loyalty to their chief, Metacom, in order to dissolve the tribe. Due to all these tensions, it only took the simple event of the deaths of three Indians (shot during a burglary) to ignite violence between the groups. Unlike the Pequot, the Wampanoag were familiar with guns and the military tactics of Europeans, and caused considerable damage to the colony, such as the destruction of 12 towns, the slaughter of 8000 head of cattle, and the deaths of over 2500 colonists. However, the end result was another victory for the colony, with the deaths of over 40% of the Indians in the area. The war ended one year later, because most of the Indians has been either killed or driven away, it also signaled the end of major Indian resistance met while colonizing.

According to the colony's charter, the group was granted what is now most of modern-day Eastern Massachusetts.

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