Massachusetts
By: Amira Pope

Massachusetts bay colony after Plymouth became a part of Massachusetts.

Migration
Massachusetts has been a place for immigrants to go for about 10 years. From the 1630’s to 1640’s about 20,000 have migrated to Massachusetts over the Atlantic Ocean. Ever since Massachusetts was founded in 1630 people have immigrated there quickly. By 1640 more than 40,000 of the English colonists had moved to Massachusetts bay.

The Massachusetts bay company was found during the big migration and was named that as a tribute to the Indians that were in New England. Also because of all the immigrants, the Puritans have been creating new businesses that are known as the New England companies.

Plymouth colony and Massachusetts bay were joined together in 1691 to officially form the Massachusetts colony. Plymouth has another government created using the Mayflower compact. Once Plymouth joined Massachusetts they were able to set up their own free governments.

On November 11, 1620, the Mayflower Compact was signed by 41 English colonists and was the first written government establishment in the New found United States. On September of 1630, the colonists named the capital of Massachusetts Boston after their hometown in England.

CLIMATE

• The winters were very cold and bitter but even though there were really cold they reduced the spread of diseases and winters were very long.
• Summers were extremely short and mild.

Geography
In Massachusetts Bay there were lots of trees and rivers but there is poor rocky soil, since the soil was not as rich it was hard to plant crops and keep them alive. Even though the soil was poor corn, pumpkins, rye, squash and beans were raised.

There were lots of natural materials and resources available to the colonists even though the soil wasn’t rich. There were fish, whales from the rivers and timber from the forests.

Daily life
The way people lived in Colonial Massachusetts was based on religion, wealth, status and how the colonists made a living. The majority of the workforce in Colonial Massachusetts consisted of manual workers, servants, apprentices, sailors, and semi-skilled tradesmen. These were colonists of the lower class who could not vote or be in office. few owned property and most were illiterate.

The lower class citizens were provided with servants and some slaves. The Middle class citizens of Colonial Massachusetts could vote but few could run for office. They ran stores or small businesses, were skilled tradesmen or belonged to professions.