The History of Boston

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Boston's Early History       

    Boston’s first settler was the Reverend William Blackstone, but then Boston was called Shawmet which was the name that Algonquin Indians had given it.  Blackstone came in 1629 by himself but wasn’t alone for long.  In 1630 John Winthrop and the other Puritan settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony joined Blackstone in Shawmet and they were the ones who would rename the city Boston after the immigrant’s hometown in Lincolnshire, England.  The government of early Boston was one run by the Puritan leaders.  Only church members were allowed to be citizens and to vote.  Biblical law would function as the primary law in the colony.  Those who were not members of the church were banished from the colony and others left due to the harsh society that the Puritans had created including William Blackstone.  At first many citizens of Boston made their living providing services and food to incoming immigrants.  With great immigration Boston would start to become an intellectual center with theologians and statesmen coming.  The Boston Latin School was founded in 1635 along with Harvard University in 1636.  In 1639 the first printing press would be built at Cambridge University by Stephen Day.  When the immigration numbers slowed down the colonists turned to the water for sources of income.  Fishing, shipbuilding and overseas trade quickly became a way of life for the people of Boston.  When the Puritans gained power in London, during the mid 17^th century, trade and migration grew greatly between the cities but trouble between Boston and England would begin to grow. 

  In 1684 the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s charter was declared null and in 1686 England sent Sir Edmund Andros to the Massachusetts Bay to be a royal governor who would work out of Boston.  With England influence officially in Boston the Puritan reign over the city would be over.  Andros ruled as a dictator and taxed the people without their consent.  Andros’ rule would only last until 1689 because when news of the removal of James II of England reached the colonies the people then arrested Andros and sent him back to England.  At that time, towns throughout the area demanded a new charter and received one in 1691.  Under the new charter there was an elected popular assembly which would assist the governor and made everyone a citizen with the right to vote as long as they owned the appropriate amount of property.  One did not have to be a Puritan anymore to have rights.

Economically, Boston was still doing well as the 18^th century started.  In 1700 Boston was the third busiest port in the British Empire and was the leading seaport for trade that involved the British American colonies.  Boston had acquired three triangular trade routes that would bring in a lot of money.  These routes would include a slave trade route, a route for sugar and a route for wine, spices, silk and fruit.  Politically, Boston became the center for American Independence from Britain.  In 1765 Britain announced the Stamp Act which required the purchase of a government stamp for all legal documents and newspapers.  This act was highly unpopular in Boston and there was a high resistance towards it.  The people saw it has taxation without representation.  In 1767 Townshend Acts were put into place which also added more taxes to the people living in the colonies.  With the growing opposition to these two acts the British government ordered a military occupation of Boston.  The presence of the British military just made things worse in Boston however and in 1770 the military fired on a crowd of people killing five.  This became known as the Boston Massacre.  The colonists would get their revenge on the British in 1773 by dumping three shiploads of tea into the Boston harbor after announcement of the Tea Act.  This act of revenge is more commonly known as the famous Boston Tea Party.  To retaliate the British closed the Boston port and sent more troops to Boston in 1774.  After much built friction between the British and the colonists the Revolutionary War would begin in April of 1775 with “the shot heard round the world” on Lexington Green which was not far from Boston.

Revolutionary War Period

After the first shots of the war the British army retreated back from Lexington and Concord to Boston but was met by the rebel army which began to position themselves in the hills around Boston.  After the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775 George Washington was called to Boston to lead the rebel army.  Under General Washington the rebel army gained position to shell Boston and regain control of the Boston Harbor.  On March 17, 1776 the British fled from Boston by sea and the war would not touch Boston again.

Following the Revolutionary War Boston again became a main trading hub but the Napoleonic Wars between Britain and France would soon disrupt that.  In 1807 President Jefferson declared a trade embargo on all European nations.  Great Britain would get even with the U.S. during the War of 1812 by placing a blockade of U.S. ports which would further hurt Boston’s trading economy.  While trouble with the European countries were persisting during the first half of the 19^th century Boston had established new trade routes with the countries of China and India however this was still not enough to support the city.  To alleviate the loss in trading revenue entrepreneurs began to invest in the textile industry.  Boston’s shipping industry and traders quickly got the textile industry up on its feet to become a large important industry which would start the industrial revolution.  The textile mills brought, trained and housed new workers to Boston.  Many immigrants included those fleeing from Ireland due to famine.

The economy shifting in Boston also helped to shift the appearance of the city.  By 1867 the city of Boston had expanded from its original 786 acres to more then 4000 acres.  Many hills were leveled and coves filled to make more land room for all the people coming to Boston to work for the textile industry.  The city also annexed other near by towns to help expand its own.  The last town was annexed in 1912. 

Socially the city was changing as well.  By 1855 50,000 Irish immigrants had come to Boston.  This was an extreme social change because up to this point most of Boston’s population was made up of descendants of English settlers. Religiously the atmosphere was beginning to see change as well.  In 1799 the first Roman Catholic Church was built in Boston and by 1875 there were 28 Catholic parishes in the city.  1825 saw the creation of the American Unitarian Association lead by William Ellery Channing.  The Christian Science religion was also founded in Boston in the second half of the 19^th century by Mary Baker Eddy.  The headquarters of this religion still remains in Boston. 

The Civil War            

During the Civil War families living in rural areas around Boston came to the city to replace workers who were fighting in the war.  This helped to make Boston the countries’ fourth largest manufacturing city.  After the war was over French Canadians, Russian Jews, Italians, and Scandinavians came to Boston.  In the 1870s Boston would become a major center for inexpensive manufactured clothing because of the amount of immigrants that could be hired for cheap labor.  Other industries such as distilleries, piano factories and ironworks would follow the clothing manufacturing trend.  Boston also became an important center for banking and insurance.

            After the Civil War the political structure of Boston would also change greatly.  The Irish Immigrants would help to form a strong Democratic Party in Boston and the first Irish mayor Hugh O’Brien would be elected in 1885.  This victory would help to tip the balance of power from the English Upper-Class Republican party to the minority groups Democratic Party.  Another Irish-American politician that would become very important in Boston was a man named James Michael Curley.  Curley would serve as mayor of Boston, governor of Massachusetts and a U.S. representative all between the years of 1914 and 1950.

 The 1900s-Present         

   Economically between 1900 and 1920 Boston’s economy was very strong and peaked in the 1920s with around 90,000 people working industrial jobs.  However as the Great Depression neared jobs would begin to disappear from Boston.  By 1930 Boston lost almost 15,000 manufacturing jobs and then would loose another 17,000 during the Great Depression.  The jobs that were left during the depression started moving towards the suburbs and the people moved with it thus declining the population of Boston.  During World War II the factories in Boston would be reopened to make things that would help with the war effort.  Boston became a major manufacturing center during the war.  However; the end of the war would again make manufacturing jobs disappear in Boston over the latter half of the century.

            The three mayors that served Boston between 1950 and 1983 tried to revitalize Boston’s economy by with major construction projects in the downtown area of Boston.  These construction projects would bring jobs into the area but not all the citizens of Boston supported these projects.  The West End Developmental Plan displaced many residents of this older tightly packed area of Boston.  The urban renewal project dealing with the West End ended up almost completely diminishing the availability of lower income housing in Boston.  Many people went to the suburbs which weakened Boston’s political base.  Manufacturing jobs would also take another hit in the 1960s while lower paying service jobs increased.  In 1979 the poverty rate was at a very high 20%.

            Along with suffering economic problems Boston was dealing with growing tensions between its social groups.  Starting in the 1950s the African American population grew to four times the size that it had once been.  In 1980 African American’s made up 22.5% of the population and was the largest minority group in the city.  Certain members of Boston’s community saw the growing number of African Americans as a threat when it came time to apply for jobs.  Racial tensions grew quickly in Boston when the economy was down.  School busing also became a major racial issue in Boston.  Most of Boston’s neighborhoods were strictly segregated and in an effort to desegregate schools in 1975 students had to be bused to other school in the city.  Violent protesting resulted from this action.

            Despite hard economic times which sparked racial tensions Boston became revitalized as technology boomed in the United States.  By 1995 unemployment was down to 5.4%.  Many of these new technology jobs are staffed by graduates of MIT and other schools in Boston.  Along with technology Boston’s financial industry and service industry continues to grow.  A look at Boston now reveals a healthy revitalized economy with numerous skyscrapers as its evidence.