Massachusetts

Archaeologists trace the earliest human arrivals in what is now Massachusetts to more than 10,000 years ago and call these first inhabitants “Paleo-Indians.”⁠[1]

When Europeans began arriving around 1500, tens of thousands of Indigenous people lived in Massachusetts.⁠[2]

John Cabot explored the territory in 1497–1498; in 1602 Bartholomew Gosnold explored the bay and named Cape Cod for the fish that swarmed about it.⁠[2][1]

Samuel de Champlain mapped the area in 1605, and in 1614 John Smith drafted a detailed map of the New England coast.⁠[3]

In 1616 and 1617 diseases brought by European visitors caused the first recorded epidemics in coastal Massachusetts, killing as much as 90% of vulnerable populations; throughout the 17th century disease and war continued to take many Indigenous lives.⁠[2]

In November 1620 the Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower landed in what is now Provincetown harbor after about 65 days at sea, and in December they established Plymouth colony. They signed the Mayflower Compact, an agreement to govern by majority rule.⁠[2]

In 1621 Plymouth held the celebration regarded as the first Thanksgiving.⁠[2]

The Wampanoag leader Massasoit maintained relative peace with the settlers until 1675; by the mid-1640s Plymouth (the Old Colony) had about 3,000 people.⁠[3]

In 1630 John Winthrop arrived at Salem bearing the charter and went on to found further settlements, including Boston, which dates from 1630.⁠[2][1]

In 1634 the freemen forced Governor Winthrop to show them the charter and passed a bill vesting governmental power in the freemen; by the mid-1640s the Massachusetts Bay Colony numbered more than 20,000 people.⁠[3]

In 1675–1676 Metacom (called King Philip by the colonists), the son of Massasoit, led Native peoples in war against the colonists. Hundreds of settlers were killed, some 50 towns in southeastern and central Massachusetts were raided, and Metacom died during the war.⁠[3]

In 1684 Massachusetts lost its charter and became part of the Dominion of New England under Sir Edmund Andros; after James II fled in 1688, the Puritans tried without success to revive the Massachusetts Bay Company.⁠[2]

In 1691 Massachusetts became a Royal Province with a Crown-appointed governor, united with Plymouth, MaineMaineMaine is a state in the northeastern United States, bordered by Canada and New Hampshire; its capital is Augusta and its largest city is Portland. It entered the Union on March 15, 1820, as the 23rd state, and had a population of 1,362,359 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard; the church-membership requirement for voting was abolished, and only property owners or taxpayers could vote.⁠[2][3]

Twenty-five men, women and children lost their lives in the Salem witch trials of 1692.⁠[4]

In the wake of the witch trials, legislation passed on November 25, 1692 created the Superior Court of Judicature, the predecessor of today’s Supreme Judicial Court, which describes itself as the oldest appellate court in continuous existence in the Western Hemisphere.⁠[5][4]

Between 1692 and 1765, 111 new towns and districts were incorporated in Massachusetts, and its population reached 222,563 by 1765.⁠[3]

In 1745 Massachusetts colonial forces helped capture the fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island.⁠[2]

Parliament passed the Sugar Act in 1764 and the Stamp Act in 1765, provoking rioting and boycotts in Massachusetts.⁠[2]

The Boston Massacre took place on March 5, 1770. In the trials that followed, John Adams defended the British soldiers; six were acquitted and two were convicted of manslaughter.⁠[2][6]

After the Tea Act of 1773, Samuel Adams organized the Boston Tea Party, in which the cargoes of three East India Company ships were dumped into Boston Harbor. England then closed the Port of Boston and passed the Intolerable Acts, and a Continental Congress ordered a boycott of English goods.⁠[2]

On April 19, 1775, after the warning rides of Paul Revere and William Dawes, the first battles of the American Revolution were fought at Lexington and Concord.⁠[2]

The Siege of Boston and the Battle of Bunker Hill followed. After eleven months of fighting, British troops evacuated Boston on March 17, 1776, a date now celebrated in Boston and Suffolk County as “Evacuation Day”; for the rest of the war no enemy troops remained in Massachusetts.⁠[2]

A first proposed constitution, which used the name “State of Massachusetts Bay,” was rejected by voters in 1778.⁠[7][6]

In August 1779 Braintree chose John Adams as a delegate to the state constitutional convention scheduled to meet on September 1. The 312 delegates named John Adams, Samuel Adams and James Bowdoin to a drafting committee, whose other two members chose John Adams to write the constitution alone; he completed his draft by October 30, 1779.⁠[6]

Approved by the town meetings, the constitution was ratified on June 15, 1780 and took effect on October 25, 1780. It consists of a Preamble, a Declaration of Rights and a Frame of Government, establishing an executive, a bicameral legislature and an independent judiciary; the state court system calls it “the world’s oldest functioning written constitution.”⁠[6]

The constitution calls the state a “Commonwealth,” a term John Adams used in drafts written after 1778.⁠[7]

Slavery had been legally sanctioned in Massachusetts since 1641 and remained legal after the 1780 constitution took effect. In 1781, in the Mum Bett case (Brom and Bett v. Ashley) tried in Great Barrington, the court freed Bett and Brom.⁠[8]

In the three related Quock Walker cases heard in 1781–1783, Chief Justice William Cushing charged the jury in 1783 that slavery had effectively been abolished under the new constitution; the 1790 census recorded no slaves in Massachusetts.⁠[8]

In August 1786, after the state government refused to consider debt-relief measures, protesters in western Massachusetts mobilized and seized several local courts. In January 1787 Daniel Shays, a former Continental Army captain, led about 1,500 men in an attempt to take the Springfield armory; they were intercepted by a state militia funded by private Boston business people, four protesters died in a brief clash, and the group dispersed, effectively ending the uprising. It was one of the major influences behind the calling of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.⁠[9]

At the Massachusetts ratifying convention, the Federalists won over Anti-Federalists by promising a Bill of Rights after adoption; the final Form of Ratification was signed on February 7, 1788. Massachusetts led the way in recommending amendments, and other states then proposed amendments modeled on their own declarations of rights.⁠[10]

The cornerstone of the Massachusetts State House was laid on July 4, 1795; designed by the American-born architect Charles Bulfinch in the neoclassical-federal style, the building was completed in 1798. Its dome was first covered with wooden shingles, later copper-plated and then gilded with 23-karat gold leaf.⁠[1]

The War of 1812 ended Massachusetts ocean trade until the war’s conclusion in 1815.⁠[2]

In 1814 Francis Cabot Lowell established his power loom in Waltham, and the textile industry went on to turn Lawrence, Lowell, Fall River and New Bedford into major manufacturing centers. In 1826 the first American railroad was built in Quincy.⁠[1][11]

Maine remained part of Massachusetts until 1820, when it became a separate state.⁠[3]

A constitutional convention held the same year further liberalized the state constitution; Massachusetts held its four major constitutional conventions in 1779–1780, 1820–1821, 1853 and 1917–1919.⁠[2][12]

In 1831 William Lloyd Garrison founded the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator in Boston and organized the New England Anti-Slavery Society.⁠[2]

In 1833 a constitutional amendment completely separated church and state.⁠[2]

In 1855 the General Court outlawed public school segregation statewide, nearly a century before BrownBrown UniversityBrown University is a private nonprofit research university in Providence, Rhode Island, and a member of the Ivy League. Chartered by Rhode Island's colonial legislature in 1764, it is known for its undergraduate Open Curriculum, which has no common required core. Christina H. Paxson, president since July 2012, announced on August 3, 2026, that the 2026–27 academic year would be her last in office. As of October 1, 2026, the search for Brown's 20th president remained underway.Open the full entry v. Board of Education, although segregation continued unofficially until the 1960s.⁠[2]

During the Civil War Massachusetts supplied troops and funds to the Union effort and raised the first African American regiments to be mustered.⁠[2][1]

In 1865 Massachusetts established the nation’s first statewide police force.⁠[1]

In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the telephone in Boston; in 1891 the first basketball game was played in Springfield; in 1892 the first gasoline-powered automobile was built in Springfield; and in 1898 the first American subway system opened in Boston.⁠[11]

By the end of the 19th century Massachusetts factories produced more than one-third of the nation’s woolen goods, and by 1900 its boot and shoe factories made about half of the nation’s footwear.⁠[2]

During the 1917–1919 convention, Article XLVIII, adopted in 1918, established the amending process still in use: an initiative petition or legislative proposal must win the support of at least 25% of legislators in each of two successive sessions of the General Court before going to the ballot, and an amendment must always be adopted by the voters.⁠[12]

In 1923 Susan Fitzgerald and Sylvia Donaldson became the first women elected to the state House of Representatives; in 1937 Sybil H. Holmes became the first woman elected to the state Senate.⁠[1]

In 1930 Massachusetts had a population of 4,249,614, about 65% of whom were foreign-born or of foreign or mixed parentage.⁠[2]

The Great Depression that began in 1929 halted industrial growth, and the economy rebounded after World War II began in Europe in 1939. The Korean War stimulated industry, and in the early Vietnam War years the economy shifted toward military and aerospace work; de-escalation and cuts to the space program in the late 1960s then forced the development of new industries.⁠[2]

In the mid-1980s high-technology companies clustered along Route 128, the highway encircling Boston, driving an economic boom that earned it the title “America’s Technology Highway”; in the late 1980s the economy declined across the Northeast.⁠[2]

Planning for the Central Artery/Tunnel Project, known as the “Big Dig,” began in 1982, and construction started in September 1991 on a bypass road through South Boston. The project replaced Boston’s deteriorating six-lane elevated Central Artery (I-93) with an underground highway and reached majority completion on January 13, 2006. It built 161 lane miles of highway, about half in tunnels, along a corridor of about 7.5 miles, and the new underground expressway has eight to ten lanes; the state Department of Transportation describes the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge as the widest cable-stayed bridge in the world.⁠[13][14]

In 1997 the Middlesex County government was abolished, and several other county governments were abolished afterward; their functions passed to state agencies, although sheriffs continue to run the jails.⁠[1]

On November 18, 2003, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled 4–3 in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, a suit filed on behalf of 14 plaintiffs, that denying same-sex couples the right to marry was unconstitutional. On May 17, 2004, Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage; Cambridge City Hall opened its doors before midnight.⁠[15]

Under the apportionment based on the 2020 census, Massachusetts kept 9 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, unchanged from 2010, with an average of 781,497 people per seat.⁠[16]

On that basis Massachusetts has 11 electoral votes in the 2024 and 2028 presidential elections.⁠[17]

In 2022 voters approved the Fair Share Amendment, which created a 4% surtax on annual income above $1 million; collections began in January 2023, and the revenue is dedicated to public education and transportation.⁠[18]

The state reports Fair Share revenue of $2.4 billion in fiscal year 2024 and $3.0 billion in fiscal year 2025, for a cumulative $6.2 billion certified through September 2025.⁠[18]

On August 6, 2024, Governor Maura HealeyMaura HealeyMaura Healey is an American Democratic politician and lawyer who has served as governor of Massachusetts since January 2023, after two terms as Massachusetts attorney general. She was re-elected governor in November 2026.Open the full entry signed the Affordable Homes Act, which authorizes $5.16 billion in spending over five years and contains nearly 50 policy initiatives, including allowing accessory dwelling units by right in single-family zoning districts in every community, $2 billion for public housing capital improvements and $800 million for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund.⁠[19]

The legislature is formally called “The Great and General Court” and has 40 senators and 160 representatives, 200 members in all, all elected every two years; the state describes its Senate as the second-oldest democratic deliberative body in the world.⁠[1][20]

As of November 2026 the governor is Maura Healey, the 73rd governor of Massachusetts, who took the oath of office in the House chamber on January 5, 2023 and is the first woman elected governor in the state’s history; Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll took office the same day. Healey previously served two terms as attorney general, first elected in 2014 and re-elected in 2018.⁠[21][22][23]

The Executive Council consists of the lieutenant governor and eight councillors elected to two-year terms; the four other constitutional officers—the secretary, attorney general, treasurer and auditor—serve four-year terms.⁠[1]

The Supreme Judicial Court has a chief justice and six associate justices, appointed by the governor with the consent of the Executive Council and serving until mandatory retirement at age 70. Chief Justice Kimberly S. Budd, the 38th chief justice, was sworn in on December 1, 2020.⁠[5][24]

The state is divided into 14 counties and has 39 cities and 312 towns.⁠[1]

Massachusetts lies in the northeastern corner of the United States, bordered by Vermont and New HampshireNew HampshireNew Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by Quebec, Canada, to the north, Vermont across the Connecticut River to the west, Massachusetts to the south, and Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east; its capital is Concord. One of the original 13 colonies, it became the ninth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution on June 21, 1788, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 1,377,529.Open the full entry to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east and southeast, Rhode IslandRhode IslandRhode Island (officially the State of Rhode Island) is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Ocean; its capital and largest city is Providence. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on May 29, 1790, the last of the original 13 to do so. Its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 1,097,379.Open the full entry and ConnecticutConnecticutConnecticut is a U.S. state in the New England region. Its capital is Hartford and its largest city is Bridgeport (2010 census). It entered the Union on January 9, 1788, as the 5th state, and had a population of 3,605,944 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry to the south, and New York StateNew York (state)New York is a state in the eastern United States; its capital is Albany and its largest city is New York City. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on July 26, 1788, becoming the 11th state to join the Union, and its population in the 2020 census was 20,201,249.Open the full entry to the west.⁠[25]

In the Census Bureau’s 2010 state area measurements, Massachusetts has a total area of 10,554 square miles (27,336 km²), of which 7,800 square miles (20,202 km²) is land and 2,754 square miles (7,134 km²) is water, including 486 square miles of inland water, 1,177 square miles of coastal water and 1,092 square miles of territorial water.⁠[26]

The west is hilly, and the Connecticut River valley separates it from a central upland plateau that slopes toward the Atlantic; the highest point is Mount Greylock in Berkshire County, at 3,491 feet. The Connecticut River is the largest river in the state, the Charles River the longest (80 miles), and the Merrimack River rises in New Hampshire and reaches the Atlantic in the northeast.⁠[1]

The man-made Quabbin Reservoir (24,704 acres) and Wachusett Reservoir (4,160 acres) supply most of Metropolitan Boston’s water; Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and the Elizabeth Islands lie off Cape Cod; and the state has about 1,519 miles of shoreline.⁠[1]

Average monthly temperatures in Boston range from 28.2°F in January to 72.0°F in July; the prevailing wind is from the west, and normal annual precipitation is 44.23 inches.⁠[1]

The Census Bureau estimates Massachusetts’s population at 7,154,084 on July 1, 2025, up 1.7% from the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 7,033,112; population density in 2020 was 901.2 people per square mile.⁠[27]

Boston had 675,647 residents in the 2020 census.⁠[1]

American Community Survey data for 2020–2024 show that foreign-born persons made up 18.0% of the population, 25.1% of people aged 5 and over spoke a language other than English at home, and households averaged 2.44 persons.⁠[27]

Bureau of Economic Analysis data put Massachusetts’s nominal GDP at $813.59 billion ($813,590.5 million) in 2025 and $781.33 billion ($781,331.8 million) in 2024.⁠[28]

The Secretary of the Commonwealth’s 2023 edition of Massachusetts Facts lists financial services as the state’s third-largest industry and manufacturing as its fourth-largest employer; farm marketings totaled $515.6 million in 2012.⁠[1]

Median household income for 2020–2024 was $103,960 (in 2024 dollars), and the state had 183,767 employer establishments in 2023.⁠[27]

Boston Latin Grammar School, founded in 1635, was the first American public secondary school; HarvardHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private research university in Massachusetts, established by the Massachusetts Bay Colony legislature in 1636 and named in 1639 for early benefactor John Harvard. Its principal campuses are in Cambridge and the Allston and Longwood neighborhoods of Boston. It includes Harvard College, graduate and professional schools, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Two governing boards share oversight. Alan M. Garber was president as of October 2026, and the endowment stood at $56.9 billion at the end of fiscal 2025.Open the full entry, founded in Cambridge in 1636, was the first American university; and in 1639 the first free American public school opened in Boston.⁠[11]

In the early 19th century Horace Mann campaigned for universal education, after which a public school system became established in every village and city.⁠[2][1]

Massachusetts has more than eighty colleges and universities; public higher education is overseen by the 13-member Board of Higher Education, whose staff is the Department of Higher Education. In 2020–2024, 47.3% of residents aged 25 and over held a bachelor’s degree or higher.⁠[1][29][27]

The University of Massachusetts began as Massachusetts Agricultural College, founded in Amherst in 1863, which opened in 1867 with four faculty and 56 students and became the University of Massachusetts in 1947. In 1991 the University of Lowell and Southeastern Massachusetts University became UMass Lowell and UMass Dartmouth, forming the present five-campus system; UMass Medical School in Worcester was founded in 1962, UMass Boston in 1964 and UMass Law in 2010.⁠[30]

The state is named for the Massachusett people, who lived around the Great Blue Hill south of Boston; the name roughly means “at or about the Great Hill,” though other interpretations exist. The most common nicknames are the “Bay State” or “Old Bay State,” with others including the “Old Colony State,” “Puritan State” and “Baked Bean State”; on December 18, 1990, “Bay Staters” was made the official designation for citizens.⁠[7][1]

The state motto is “Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem” (“By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty”), adopted in 1775 by the Provincial Congress. The coat of arms is a blue shield bearing an Indigenous figure holding a gold bow and arrow and a five-pointed star, with a crest of an arm grasping a broadsword.⁠[7]

The state seal was adopted by Governor John Hancock and the Council on December 13, 1780 and made official by the General Court on June 4, 1885; it is inscribed “Sigillum Reipublicae Massachusettensis.” The state flag is white and bears the coat of arms on both sides, except that the star is white; it was approved in its final form on July 3, 1971, and its reverse formerly showed a green pine tree. The state colors—blue, green and cranberry—were adopted on February 21, 2005.⁠[7][1]

The state flower is the mayflower (Epigaea repens), adopted on May 1, 1918; the state tree, the American elm, and the state bird, the black-capped chickadee, were both adopted on March 21, 1941; the state dog is the Boston terrier (May 14, 1979); and on April 29, 2022, Podokesaurus holyokensis was named the state dinosaur.⁠[7]

Commonwealth of Massachusetts: Official website: https://www.mass.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[31]

Governor Maura Healey and Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll: Official website: https://www.mass.gov/orgs/governor-maura-healey-and-lt-governor-kim-driscoll (opens in a new window).⁠[23]

The General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts: Official website: https://malegislature.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[32]

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court: Official website: https://www.mass.gov/orgs/massachusetts-supreme-judicial-court (opens in a new window).⁠[33]