Massachusetts Bay Colony period (1629-1686)
The Pilgrims were soon followed by the Puritans from the River Thames region of England, who established the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Although the Puritans came to Massachusetts for religious freedom, they were not tolerant of any other religion than theirs. People such as Anne Hutchinson, Roger Williams, and Thomas Hooker left Massachusetts and went South because of the Puritans' lack of religious tolerance. Williams ended up founding the colony of Rhode Island and Hooker founded Connecticut. King Philip's War (1675-1676), the bloodiest Indian war of the early colonial period, included major campaigns in the Pioneer Valley and Plymouth Colony. It took many years for the colonies of southern New England to recover from the effects of the war.
Dominion of New England (1686-1692)
In May of 1686, the Massachusetts Bay Colony came to an end, as Joseph Dudley became President of New England under a commission of King James II. He established his authority later in New Hampshire and the King's Province (part of today's Rhode Island), maintaining this position until Sir Edmund Andros arrived to become the Royal Governor of the Dominion of New England. Dudley continued on as a member of Governor Andros' council.
At the news of the accession of William and Mary, the Boston colonials rebelled. Andros and his officials were held on Castle Island and then sent back to England as prisoners. Andros was exonerated and went on to become Governor of Virginia (1692–98).
Royal Colony of Massachusetts (1692-1774)
Notable governors during this period were Thomas Hutchinson, Sir Francis Bernard, and Thomas Gage. Gage was the last British governor of Massachusetts.
Revolutionary Massachusetts (1760s-1780s)
Massachusetts was the first colony to revolt against British rule, and thus the instigator of the American Revolution. On February 9, 1775 the British Parliament declared Massachusetts to be in rebellion, and sent additional troops to restore order to the colony.
In Boston on March 5, 1770, an African-American named Crispus Attucks, from Framingham, was killed (along with four other American colonists) at an event that became known as the Boston Massacre; Attucks is often considered the first casualty of the American Revolution.
[On the evening of December 16, 1773, a band of colonials (members of the Sons of Liberty) under the direction of local Whig party radicals, such as Samuel Adams and John Hancock, loosely disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians and boarded three merchant vessels moored at Griffin's Wharf (the Eleanor, the Dartmouth and the Beaver). There they dumped 342 crates of tea into Boston Harbor to protest the "Tea Act", a tax on tea retained by the British Parliament as a matter of principle following the successful protestation and repeal of the unpopular "Townshend Duties" in 1770. This was not a small protest by any means. The value of the destroyed tea, in today's money, would be worth approximately 1.8 million dollars! Many historians consider the Boston Tea Party to be the single most important event leading to the American Revolution.
In response to this act of protest, a set of laws were passed by Parliament, referred to as the "Intolerable Acts", or "Coercive Acts". Included in these laws were the closing of the port of Boston, British military occupation of the town, and the restriction of town meetings. ~ Sabra]
Several early Revolutionary battles took place in Massachusetts, including the Battles of Lexington and Concord (where the famous shot heard 'round the world was fired), the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston.
