| Before the arrival of Europeans, the area that is | | | | Boston, as well as Anglicans and Quakers. |
| today the state of Massachusetts was inhabited | | | | However there were religious tensions, with |
| by various Algonquian-speaking Native American | | | | Quakerism banned, and four Quakers hanged on |
| peoples including the Massachusett, the | | | | Boston Colony. The English colonies of Connecticut |
| Pennacook, the Wampanoag, the Nauset, the | | | | and Rhode Island were founded at this time by |
| Nipmuc, the Pocomtuc, the Mahican, the | | | | dissenters fleeing the lack of religious tolerance in |
| Narragansett and Mohegan. Sadly however, all | | | | the Massachusetts Bay Colony. |
| these peoples were soon decimated by smallpox | | | | In the reign of King James II of England, who was |
| when Europeans first arrived in North America. | | | | an outspoken Catholic, the Massachusetts Bay |
| In 1620, the Pilgrims arrived from England on the | | | | Colony's charter was annulled. A short-lived |
| Mayflower, establishing a colony at Plymouth. Like | | | | Dominion of New England was formed, but the |
| the Native Americans, the Pilgrims suffered from | | | | Royal Governor was overthrown by the colonials. |
| smallpox. They were however helped by the | | | | After James' overthrow, the Plymouth Colony |
| Wampanoags, and celebrated their first | | | | and Massachusetts Bay Colony (Boston) were |
| Thanksgiving with the Native Americans in 1621. | | | | merged, and a new royal charter was granted in |
| The English settlers were known to the Native | | | | 1692. |
| Americans, as Yengeeze (their pronunciation of | | | | 1692 was also signalled the Salem witch trials. The |
| "English"). This is the origin of the word "Yankee". | | | | trials lasted until May 1693, and resulted in the |
| In the following decades, the Pilgrims were | | | | deaths of 20 people (14 women and 6 men), and |
| followed by Puritans, who established a colony at | | | | the imprisonment of more than 150. |