E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society: Life in Colonial Massachusetts Lesson A: The First English Settlements in the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Key Questions
1. How did the first settlers decide where to establish towns?
2. How were additional towns established?
STUDENT ACTIVITIES:
Primary Sources
Related Mass Moments
"Puritans Leave for Massachusetts"
In 1630, approximately 1,000 Puritans came to Massachusetts under the leadership of John Winthrop.
"Site for Cambridge Selected"
Colonists sited their first capital along the northern bank of the Charles River.
"William Pynchon Buys Land for Springfield"
Pynchon established a fur trading center on the Connecticut River.
"Marblehead Carved Out of Salem"
One by one, people in larger towns created or “seeded” new towns.