Massachusetts - A Colony

Massachusetts is quite possibly the most famous of the 13 Colonies, laying claim to the Pilgrims' landing and the Boston Tea Party, as well as the first battles of the Revolutionary War--Lexington and Concord. Native Americans, of course, were living in Massachusetts long before Europeans arrived. Among them were the Wampanoag, the Nauset, and the Massachuset. These people were largely agricultural, although they did a good amount of fishing and trading with French and British settlers. …

…discontented were farmers in western Massachusetts, who banded together and tried to get their money back by force. Their leader was a man named Daniel Shays, and the whole thing was called Shays' Rebellion The Rebellion and the government's inability to solve the deepening crisis led the colonies to re-examine the Articles and, in fact, create a new form of government, as outlined in the Constitution. Massachusetts was the sixth state to ratify the Constitution.