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Massachusetts Bay Colony

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Forest of pine trees.

Tree of Peace, Spark of War

The white pines of New England may have done more than any leaf of tea to kick off the American Revolution.
by Ian Rose via JSTOR Daily on September 4, 2024
Another text is visible beneath a ripped piece of writing

How America's First Banned Book Survived and Became an Anti-Authoritarian Icon

The Puritans outlawed Thomas Morton's "New English Canaan" because it was critical of the society they were building in colonial New England.
by Colleen Connolly via Smithsonian on October 2, 2023

The Middle Hutchinson: Elisha, 1641-1717

By leading the risky but eventually successful financial operation, Elisha justified his name.
by Dror Goldberg via Commonplace on April 4, 2023
Detail of a five-shilling Massachusetts Colony note, the only surviving piece of the colony’s 1690 legal tender.

‘Easy Money’ Review: The Currency and the Commonwealth

Saddled with debt and forbidden by the crown to mint money, Boston’s Puritans dreamed up a novel monetary system that we still use today.
by Adam Rowe via The Wall Street Journal on March 31, 2023
Illustration of the Salem Witch Trials, with a "witch" appearing to levitate books

My Witch-Hunt History, and America's: A Personal Journey to 1692

Revisiting America's first witch hunt — and discovering how much of it was a family affair. My family, that is.
by Andrew O'Hehir via Salon on July 4, 2021
Puritans watching a May Day celebration.

The Pilgrims' Attack on a May Day Celebration Was a Dress Rehearsal for Removing Native Americans

The Puritans had little tolerance for those who didn't conform to their vision of the world.
by Peter C. Mancall via The Conversation on April 29, 2021
Arabian silver coin from Yemen in 1693, found in Rhode Island

Arabian Coins Found in U.S. May Unlock 17th-Century Pirate Mystery

The discovery may explain the escape of Captain Henry Every after his murderous raid on an Indian emperor’s ship.
via The Guardian on April 1, 2021
Illustration of Thomas Morton of Merrymount being arrested by Myles Standish of the Plymouth Colony

Pranksters and Puritans

Why Thomas Morton seems to have taken particular delight in driving the Pilgrims and Puritans out of their minds.
by Christopher Benfey via New York Review of Books on February 15, 2021
Map of Massachusetts colonial frontier

The “Indianized” Landscape of Massachusetts

In Massachusetts, the inclusion of Native American names and places in local geography has obscured the violence of political and territorial dispossession.
by Mark Jarzombek via Places Journal on February 1, 2021
The book cover for "They Knew They Were Pilgrims."

A History of the Pilgrims That Neither Idolizes Nor Demonizes Them

Historian John Turner tells the story of Plymouth Colony with nuance and care.
by Grant Wacker via The Christian Century on January 14, 2021
A man watching a maypole celebration.

Lord of Misrule: Thomas Morton’s American Subversions

When we think of early New England, we picture stern-faced Puritans. But in the same decade that they arrived, Morton founded a very different kind of colony.
by Ed Simon via The Public Domain Review on November 24, 2020
An illustration of a pilgrim looking toward the sky with a group of others gathered around kneeling.

What Liberty Meant to the Pilgrims

Most adult men could aspire to participation in the religious and political government of the colony. But this communal liberty did not imply personal liberty.
by Nathanael Blake via National Review on June 18, 2020

Winthrop’s “City” Was Exceptional, not Exceptionalist

A review of Daniel T. Rodgers’ "As a City on a Hill: The Story of America’s Most Famous Lay Sermon."
by Jim Sleeper via Los Angeles Review of Books on February 19, 2019
Illustration of the harmful effects of alcohol on a Seneca village

America's First Addiction Epidemic

The alcohol epidemic devastated Native American communities, leading to crippling poverty, high mortality rates — and a successful sobriety movement.
by Christopher Finan via Longreads on August 29, 2017
John Winthrop
partner

Invisible Cities

On John Winthrop’s oft-misunderstood use of the phrase “a city upon a hill” to describe the New World.
via BackStory on January 22, 2016
Pilgrims going to church armed with guns.

God and Guns

Patrick Blanchfield tracks the long-standing entanglement of guns and religion in the United States. Part 1 of 2.
by Patrick Blanchfield via The Revealer on September 25, 2015
View of Boston in 1730.

Civil Unions in the City on a Hill: The Real Legacy of "Boston Judges"

For the English Puritans who founded Massachusetts in 1630, marriage was a civil union, a contract, not a sacred rite.
by Mark A. Peterson via Commonplace on April 2, 2004
View of New Amsterdam from the 1620s.

The Dutch Roots of American Liberty

New York would never be the Puritans' austere city on a hill, yet it became America’s vibrant heart of capitalism.
by John O. McGinnis via Law & Liberty on April 10, 2025
Co-founder of Moms for Liberty Tina Descovich speaks during the 2024 Joyful Warriors National Summit.

From the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s ‘Body of Liberties’ to Today’s ‘Moms for Liberty’

The "parental rights" movement, rooted in colonial theocracy, has evolved into a political force resisting racial, gender, and educational equality.
by Bruce Gourley via Church & State Magazine on October 1, 2024
A illustration depicts the Hopkinsville Goblins incident from 1955, when a group claims they were assaulted by aliens of some sort.

The Long, Surprising Legacy of the Hopkinsville Goblins

Or, why families under siege make for great movies.
by Colin Dickey via Atlas Obscura on February 8, 2024
The American flag on a black background; underneath the flag the outline of the Christian cross is visible

How Christian Is Christian Nationalism?

Many Americans who advocate it have little interest in religion and an aversion to American culture as it currently exists. What really defines the movement?
by Kelefa Sanneh via The New Yorker on March 27, 2023
Poster for HBO documentary "Exterminate All the Brutes," featuring a human skull painted to look like a globe.

We Must Burn Them: Against the Origin Story

"History​ is written by the victors, but diligent and continual silencing is required to maintain its claims on the present and future."
by Hazel V. Carby via London Review of Books on May 26, 2022
Patricia Hearst in front of SLA flag, 1974; CSU Archives/Everett Collection/Alamy Stock Photo.

American Captivity

The captivity narrative as creation myth.
by Ed Simon via The Hedgehog Review on March 1, 2022
Drawing of the hanging of a woman accused of witchcraft.

The Historical Truth About Women Burned at the Stake in America? Most Were Black.

Most Americans probably don’t know this piece of Black history. But they should.
by Kali Nicole Gross via Washington Post on February 25, 2022
U.S. Capitol riot

Echo Chambers

Parallels between the American Revolution and the U.S. Capitol riot.
by Sarah Swedberg via Nursing Clio on August 5, 2021
Estebanico

Black America’s Neglected Origin Stories

The history of Blackness on this continent is longer and more varied than the version I was taught in school.
by Annette Gordon-Reed via The Atlantic on May 4, 2021
Detail of Anti-Slavery Picnic at Weymouth Landing, Massachusetts (c1845) by Susan Torrey Merritt. Courtesy the Art Institute of Chicago

New England Kept Slavery, But Not Its Profits, At a Distance

Entangled with, yet critical of, colonial oppression and the evils of slavery, the true history of Boston can now be told.
by Mark A. Peterson via Aeon on May 3, 2021
Embarkation of the Pilgrims.

Puritanism as a State of Mind

Whatever the “City on a Hill” is, the phrase was not discovered by Kennedy or Reagan.
by Glen A. Moots via Law & Liberty on April 30, 2021
Toy santa mug shots

The War on Christmas

A brief history of the Yuletide in America.
by Charles Ludington via The American Scholar on December 28, 2020
Replica of the original Plimoth Plantation.

The Complicated Legacy of the Pilgrims is Finally Coming to Light After 400 Years

Descendants of the Pilgrims have highlighted their ancestors’ role in the country’s founding. But their sanitized version of events is only now starting to be told in full.
by Peter C. Mancall via The Conversation on September 4, 2020
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