A popular explanation for the name "right whales" is that they were the "right" ones to hunt, as they float when killed and often swim within sight of shore. They are quite docile, and do not tend to shy away from approaching boats. As such, they were hunted nearly to extinction during the active years of the whaling industry. This origin is apocryphal. In his history of American whaling, Eric Jay Dolin writes: "Despite this highly plausible rationale, nobody actually knows how the right whale got its name. The earliest references to the right whale offer no indication why it was called that, and some who have studied the issue point out that the word 'right' in this context might just as likely be intended "to connote 'true' or 'proper,' meaning typical of the group. (Full article...)
Anne Hutchinson, born Anne Marbury (1591–1643), was a Puritan woman, spiritual adviser, mother of 15, and important participant in the Antinomian Controversy that shook the infant Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1636 to 1638. Her strong religious convictions were at odds with the established Puritan clergy in the Boston area, and her popularity and charisma helped create a theological schism that threatened to destroy the Puritans' religious experiment in New England. She was eventually tried and convicted, then banished from the colony with many of her supporters. With encouragement from Providence founder, Roger Williams, Hutchinson and many of her supporters established the settlement of Portsmouth in what became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. After her husband's death she moved to New Netherland near an ancient landmark called Split Rock in what later became The Bronx in New York City. Here all but one of the 16 members of her household were massacred during an attack, the only survivor being her nine-year old daughter, Susanna, who was taken captive. Her well-publicised trials and the accusations against her make Hutchinson the most famous, or infamous, English woman in colonial American history. (Full article...)
Image 5Largest self-reported ancestry groups in New England. Americans of Irish descent form a plurality in most of Massachusetts, while Americans of English descent form a plurality in much of the central parts of Vermont and New Hampshire as well as nearly all of Maine. (from New England)
Image 14A political and geographical map of New England shows the coastal plains in the southeast, and hills, mountains and valleys in the west and the north. (from New England)
Image 53The MBTA Commuter Rail serves eastern Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island, radiating from downtown Boston, with planned service to New Hampshire. The CTrail system operates the Shore Line East and Hartford Line, covering coastal Connecticut, Hartford, and Springfield, Massachusetts. (from New England)
... that Cora Agnes Benneson, one of the first female lawyers in New England, was rejected by Harvard Law School because "the equipments were too limited to make suitable provision for receiving women"?
Massachusetts has played a significant historical, cultural, and commercial role in American history. Plymouth was the site of the colony founded in 1620 by the Pilgrims, passengers of the Mayflower. Harvard University, founded in 1636, is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. In 1692, the towns surrounding Salem experienced one of America's most infamous cases of mass hysteria, the Salem Witch Trials. Originally dependent on fishing, agriculture, and trade, Massachusetts was transformed into a manufacturing center during the Industrial Revolution. In the 21st century, Massachusetts is a leader in higher education, health care technology, high technology, and financial services (Full article...)
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