The History of Colonial Massachusetts
The area was first explored by John Cabot in 1498. Bartholomew Gosnold (1572 - 1607) then explored the coast in 1602 shortly followed by Samuel de Champlain (1567-1635) in 1604. In 1620 the Mayflower ship transported 102 English Puritans and Separatists led by the Pilgrim Fathers, from a site near the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts.  The Pilgrims establish their own government, the basis of which was the Mayflower Compact, which was drafted on their journey to the New World. In 1620 John Masonand Sir Ferdinando Gorges received land in northern New England which became the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In the spring of 1630, John Winthrop led a fleet of 11 vessels and 700 passengers to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Glorious Revolution of Great Britain sparks revolt in the colonies and Boston militiamen seize Governor-in-Chief Andros and put him in jail. The year of 1691 sees hysteria spread through Colonial Massachusetts over witchcraft accusations in Salem Village, Massachusetts and the infamous Salem Witch Trials. The Sons of Liberty was an an organization (a secret society) formed by American Patriots in Boston who opposed British measures against the colonists, and agitated for resistance. Merchants in Boston and New York boycott British goods until the Townshend Acts are repealed. In 1770 the incident referred to as the Boston Massacreoccurred in which  British soldiers, who were quartered in Boston, fired into a rioting mob killing five American civilians. The famous patriot Samuel Adams organized the first Committee of Correspondence at Boston, Massachusetts. Patriots in Massachusetts dressed as Mohawk Indians protested against the British Tea Act in the incident which became known as the Boston Tea Party. In 1775 the first shots are fired in the Revolutionary War at Concord, Massachusetts.