Modern day explorers can head 40 miles south of Boston, Massachusetts to visit the spot commemorating the Mayflower's landing in 1620. At Pilgrim Memorial State Park, a full-scale replica of the Mayflower II allows visitors to get a feel for its small size and very basic accommodation. A typical day in a 17th century farm and village is recreated at Plimouth Plantation, which features a grist mill and craft center. Staffed by interpretive storytellers in costumes, visitors learn about the colony's survival during those difficult early times. Nearly 400 years later, this is as close as one can get to the inhospitable place once called the Massachusetts Bay Frontier.
Our Pilgrim Fathers
- The 102 brave souls from England and Holland sailing aboard the Mayflower were the first Europeans to arrive in the area we know as Massachusetts with the intention of remaining permanently. Together with a crew of 50, they made an arduous three-month ocean crossing. Heading for the land between the Charles River and the Merrimack River, this group endeavored to start a colony 13 years after the earlier Virginia Company was founded in Jamestown, Virginia. By the end of that first harsh winter, half their number had perished.
Early English Settlers
- Traveling today through Massachusetts and much of New England, town and place names recall strong ties to the motherland. Many of the merchant and craftsmen settlers came from England’s northeast districts of Lincolnshire and East Anglia, while another large group hailed from Devon, Dorset and Somerset in England's southwest. What began as a trickle with a flotilla of ships in 1630, amounted to some 10,000 Puritan colonists and their ministers arriving in Massachusetts. Another 10,000 settled throughout New England over the course of the next decade.
New England's Roots
- The 17th century Massachusetts Bay Frontier covered much of what currently comprises the six states of New England. To protect the land in the early days of English colonization, 21 of the 64 small settlements were tagged with the designation “frontier town” where colonists literally held the fort. While some men undertook expansion into the wilderness from remote trading posts, citizens of these early settlements featuring garrisons and stockades were charged with defending them on threat of imprisonment.
Frontier Threats
- In the early 17th century when Europeans arrived, the land we call Massachusetts was inhabited by about 7,000 Native Americans from assorted Algonquin tribes, with a further 10,000 in New England. The relationship began as a peaceful trading one. Tensions grew as colonists mounted continuing pressure on tribal leaders to give up or sell more land. Known as King Philip’s War after the nickname of Metacomet, a Wampanoag chief, a deadly conflict between colonists and natives erupted in 1675. Many frontier towns were destroyed or badly damaged, with significant loss of life on both sides before a peace treaty was signed in 1678.
