Massachusetts

Massachusetts is the seventh-smallest state in the United States with an area of 10,555 square miles (27,340 square kilometers). Located in New England, Massachusetts is one of the oldest states in the nation.

Massachusetts was originally inhabited by Algonquian tribes such as the Pocomtuc and Massachusett, for which the British colony was later named. In the early 1600s, the native people came in contact with Europeans. Many indigenous people were killed by disease. In 1617–19, smallpox killed 90 percent of the Massachusetts Bay Native Americans. The first European permanent settlement had been established at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, followed by the colony at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620, and in 1630 by the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which is now present-day Boston. When the colonies sought independence from ...