Documented flags of colonial New England. Based on the English Red Ensign, variations existed with and without pine trees and St George's cross.http://www.midcoast.com/~martucci/flags/NEFlag.html
New England has long been inhabited by Algonquian-speaking native peoples, including the Abenaki, the Penobscot, the Wampanoag, and others. Before the arrival of Europeans in the region, the Western Abenakis mostly inhabited New Hampshire and Vermont, but also inhabited parts of Québec and western Maine. Their principal town was Norridgewock, in present-day Maine. The Penobscot were settled along the Penobscot River in Maine. The Wampanoag occupied southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.
On April 10, 1606, King James I of England chartered the Virginia Companies of London and Plymouth. The latter included land extending as far as present-day northern Maine.http://www.learner.org/channel/workshops/primarysources/virginia/transcript01.html The purpose of each was to claim land for England, trade, and make a profit."In addition to claiming land for England and bringing the faith of the Church of England to the native peoples, the Virginia Company was also enjoined both by the crown and its members to make a tidy profit by whatever means it found expedient." http://www.nps.gov/colo/Jthanout/TobaccoHistory.htmlCaptain John Smith, exploring the shores of the region in 1614, named the region "New England."New England. (2006). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved June 20, 2006, from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service: http://www.britannica.com/e/article?tocId=9055457 This name was officially sanctioned on November 3, 1620, when the charter of the Virginia Company of Plymouth was replaced by a royal charter for the Plymouth Council for New England, a joint stock company established to colonize and govern the region."...joint stock company organized in 1620 by a charter from the British crown with authority to colonize and govern the area now known as New England." New England, Council for. (2006). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved July 13, 2006, from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service: http://www.britannica.com/e/article?tocId=9055458 On March 3, 1636, the Connecticut Colony was granted a charter, and established its own government. At this time, Vermont was yet unsettled, and the territories of New Hampshire and Maine were governed by Massachusetts.
Six years after the Pequot War, in 1643, the colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, New Haven, and Connecticut joined together in a loose compact called the New England Confederation (officially "The United Colonies of New England"). The confederation was designed largely to coordinate mutual defense against a possible wars with Native Americans, the Dutch in the New Netherland colony to the west, the Spanish in the south, and the French in New France to the north, as well as to assist in the return of runaway slaves. The confederation lost its influence when Massachusetts refused to commit itself to a war against the Dutch.
In 1686, King James II, concerned about the increasingly independent ways of the colonies, including their self-governing charters, open flouting of the Navigation Acts, and increasing military power, established the Dominion of New England, an administrative union comprising all of the New England colonies. Two years later, the provinces of New York (New Amsterdam) and the New Jersey, seized from the Dutch, were added. The union, imposed from the outside and contrary to the rooted democratic tradition of the region, was highly unpopular among the colonists.
The Old World's enduring influence over New England is evident in the architecture of Boston College, originally dubbed Oxford in America.Boston College, "Boston College Facts." Available at: http://www.bc.edu/about/bc-facts/s-bc-facts/ (Accessed 2 August 2006).
After the Glorious Revolution in 1689, the charters of most of the colonies were significantly modified, with the appointment of Royal Governors to nearly every colony. An uneasy tension existed between the Royal Governors, their officers, and the elected governing bodies of the colonies. The governors wanted unlimited authority, and the different layers of locally-elected officials would often resist them. In most cases, the local town governments continued operating as self-governing bodies, just as they had before the appointment of the Royal Governors. This tension culminated itself in the American Revolution, boiling over with the breakout of the American War of Independence in 1776. The colonies were now formally united as newly-formed states in a larger (but not yet federalist) union called the United States of America.
In the 18th century and the early 19th century, New England was still considered to be a very distinct region of the country, as it is today. During the War of 1812, there was a limited amount of talk of secession from the Union, as New England merchants, just getting back on their feet, opposed the war with their greatest trading partner--Great Britain.
Aside from the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, or "New Scotland," New England is the only North American region to inherit the name of a kingdom in the British Isles. New England has largely preserved its regional character, especially in its historic places. Its name is a reminder of the past, as many of the original English-Americans have migrated further west. Today, the region is more ethnically diverse, having seen waves of immigration from Ireland, Québec, Italy, Asia, Latin America, Africa, other parts of the United States, and elsewhere. The enduring European influence can be seen in the region, from Massachusetts' use of traffic rotaries to the bilingual French and English towns of northern Vermont and New Hampshire, as innocuous as the sprinkled use of British spelling, and as obvious as the region's unique dialect.
A USGS map depicts a small piece of Maine's fjordlike coast.
New England's geography is the result of retreating ice sheets that shaped the landscape thousands of years ago, leaving behind rolling hills, mountains, and a jagged coastline. The seacoast of the region, extending from southwestern Connecticut to northeastern Maine, is dotted with lakes, hills, swamps, and sandy beaches, especially in Cape Cod. Further from the coast are higher elevations, including mountain ranges and rocky hills, which extend through Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. These are a part of the Appalachian Mountains. Mount Washington, at 1,917 m (6,288 ft), in New Hampshire's White Mountains, is the highest peak in New England. It is also the windiest place on Earth. Vermont's Green Mountains, which become the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts, are smaller than the White Mountains. Valleys in the region include the Connecticut River Valley and the Merrimack Valley.
The region has many rivers and streams. The longest is the Connecticut River, which flows from northeastern New Hampshire for 655 km (407 mi) until it empties into the Long Island Sound. Lake Champlain, between Vermont and New York, is the largest lake in the region.
In 1910, 6,552,681 people lived in New England. As of 2000, the total population of New England was 13,922,517.http://www.planning.state.ri.us/census/pdf%20files/pdf/NE1800-2000.PDF If New England were one state, its population would rank 5th in the nation, behind Florida. The total area, at 70,054.3756 sq mi (181,440 sq km), would rank 20th, behind North Dakota.
Boston is considered to be the cultural and historical capital of New England. Above is an aerial photo of Boston's Back Bayneighborhood, with Cambridge on the northern bank of the Charles River.
Providence is the second-largest city in New England and claims the largest contiguous area of National Historic Society-designated buildings in the U.S.
Worcester is the third-largest city in New England and by far the largest urban area in the more rural mid- to northwestern part of the region.
Southern New England
The bulk of the region's population is concentrated in southern New England, which comprises Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The most populous state is Massachusetts, whose population is centered around its political and cultural capital, Boston. Western Massachusetts is less densely populated than eastern Massachusetts.
Southwestern Connecticut has grown rapidly in population since 1970, as many corporations formerly headquartered in Manhattan moved to nearby Fairfield County to take advantage of lower taxes while still staying within the general region, bringing jobs and "New York transplants." The wealth in western Connecticut, the Hartford and New Haven suburbs, and the shoreline all contribute to the state having the highest per capita income of any state in the United States.
Coastal New England
The coastline is more urban than western New England, which is typically rural, even in urban states like Massachusetts. This characteristic of the region's population is due mainly to historical factors; the original colonists settled mostly on the coastline of Massachusetts Bay. The only state without access to the Atlantic Ocean, Vermont, is also the least-populated. After nearly 400 years, the region still maintains, for the most part, its historical population layout.
Cape Cod, also a popular tourist attraction, is lined with sandy beaches and dotted with bed and breakfast tourist lodgings. The picturesque and rugged coast of Maine is best known for its beauty and for lobster. New Hampshire, which has the smallest coastline of all of the coastal New England states, is home to Hampton Beach, also frequented by visitors to the region.
Urban New England
Three of the four most densely populated states in the United States are in New England. In order, the four most densely populated states are: New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Indeed, southern New England forms an integral part of the BosWashmegalopolis, a conglomeration of urban centers that spans from Boston to Washington, D.C.
The Boston metropolitan area, which includes parts of southern New Hampshire, has a total population of approximately 5.8 million. The largest cities by population in New England are:
A derivative of meetings held by church elders, town meetings were and are an integral part of governance in towns across New England. At such meetings, any citizen of the town may discuss issues with other members of the community and vote on them. This is the strongest example of direct democracy in the United States today, and the form of dialogue has been adopted under certain circumstances elsewhere, most strongly in the states closest to the region, such as New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Such a strong democratic tradition was even apparent in the early 19th century, when Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in Democracy in America that in
New England, where education and liberty are the daughters of morality and religion, where society has acquired age and stability enough to enable it to form principles and hold fixed habits, the common people are accustomed to respect intellectual and moral superiority and to submit to it without complaint, although they set at naught all those privileges which wealth and birth have introduced among mankind. In New England, consequently, the democracy makes a more judicious choice than it does elsewhere.
James Madison, a critic of town meetings, however, wrote in Federalist No. 55 that, regardless of the assembly, "passion never fails to wrest the scepter from reason. Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob."Madison, James. Federalist No. 55. Quotation attributed at http://www.ilsr.org/newrules/gov/townmtg.html (Accessed 19 July 2006). Today, the use and effectiveness of town meetings, as well as the possible application of the format to other regions and countries, is still discussed by scholars.See Harvard lecturer Robert I. Rotberg review REAL DEMOCRACY: THE NEW ENGLAND TOWN MEETING AND HOW IT WORKS at http://democraciaparticipativa.net/libros/RealDemocracyNewEnglandTownMeeting.htm (Accessed 19 July 2006).
New England and political thought
Samuel Adams, a Brewer and a Patriot during the Revolutionary Period
During the colonial period and the early years of the American republic, New England leaders like John Hancock, John Adams, and Samuel Adams joined those in Philadelphia and Virginia to assist and lead the newly-forming country. At the time of the American Civil War, New England, the mid-Atlantic, and the Midwest, which had long since abolished slavery, united against the Confederate States of America, ending the practice in the United States. Henry David Thoreau, iconic New England writer and philosopher, made the case for civil disobedience and libertarianism, and has been adopted by the anarchist tradition. A modern example of this spirit is the Free State Project in New Hampshire.
While modern New England is known for its liberal tendencies, Puritan New England was highly intolerant of any deviation from strict social norms. During the civil rights era, Boston brewed with racial tension over school busing to end de facto segregation of its public schools."School Integration in Boston: Introduction." Available at: http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/school-integration/boston/index.html (Accessed 19 July 2006)
Contemporary politics
Today, the dominant party in New England is the Democratic Party, sending six Democrats to the U.S. Senate and sixteen Democrats to the U.S. House of Representatives, compared to five Republican senators and five Republican representatives, respectively. Most states have a significant Republican electorate, and only Maine and New Hampshire have Democratic governors. As of the 2004 state elections, Maine is the only state that has its executive and legislative branches controlled by the same party (the Democrats). In the 2000 presidential election, Democratic candidate Al Gore carried all of the New England states except for New Hampshire, and in 2004, John Kerry, a New Englander himself, won all six New England states."2006 Political Party Breakdown by State." Available at: http://www.thegreenpapers.com/G06/PPBDTraditional.phtml (Accessed 19 July 2006).
New England abolished the death penalty for crimes like robbery and burglary in the 19th century, before much of the rest of the United States did. New Hampshire and Connecticut are the only New England states that allow capital punishment,"Death Penalty Information Center." Available at: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/state/ (Accessed 19 July 2006). although New Hampshire currently has no death row inmates and has not held an execution since 1939. Connecticut held an execution in 2005, the first in New England since 1960, when Connecticut last executed a prisoner."New Hampshire has not executed anyone since 1939 and has no one on death row. Seven inmates are waiting to die in Connecticut, which conducted New England's last execution in 1960." FOXNews.com. "Supreme Court Lifts Order Blocking Connecticut Execution." Available at: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,145681,00.html (Accessed 19 July 2006).
Vermont was the first state to allow civil unions between same sex couples, and Massachusetts was the first state to allow same-sex marriage between same sex couples. In 2005, Connecticut also began to allow civil unions.
As of 2006, Massachusetts is the only state with a plan to adopt a system of universal health care for its citizens.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/04/AR2006040401937.html
New England has a history of shared heritage and culture, although the region has also been shaped by waves of immigration from Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Within the region, there is also a cultural divide between rural and urban New England. The coastline is much more densely populated, whereas the mountainous western part of the region is sparsely populated, the resulting effect of which is a cultural divide between urban New Englanders and rural New Englanders living in Western Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.http://www.brown.edu/Research/Earthlab/lulchistory/nepopulationgrowth.htm Connecticut is more of a cultural paradox compared to the other states in the region. The southwestern part of the state is essentially a suburb of and a part of the New York metropolitan area. This part of the state is more like that of neighboring New York City than the rest of the New England region. The remainder of the state (and other half of its population), however, is very culturally similar to that of the neighboring states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. An example of this cultural dichotomy can be found in residents' allegiance to sports teams. Western Connecticut residents may root for either Boston or New York teams, unlike other New England residents who tend to be staunchly loyal to Boston teams.http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/submit/Mullen_Dan1.stm Television broadcasts in Hartford and New Haven typically give equal coverage to sports teams in both Boston and New York.
Cultural roots
The first European colonists of New England were focused on affairs such as whaling and fishing, rather than more continental inclinations such as surplusfarming.
As the oldest of the American regions, New England has developed a distinct cuisine, dialect, architecture, and government. New England cuisine is known for its emphasis on seafood and dairy; clam chowder, lobster, and other products of the sea are among some of the region's most popular foods.
The often-parodieddialect of the region (see Mayor Quimby of The Simpsons or Peter Griffin of Family Guy) is most commonly known as the Boston accent or Boston English, although, in reality, this accent is reserved mostly for the coasts of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Maine. It is the result of an incomplete transition from 17th century British English, which the standard American dialect imitates, and modern British English. There are also other regional accents as well, such as the Boston Brahmin accent, said to be typical of the Boston Brahmin aristocracy.
In much of rural New England, particularly Maine, Acadian and Quebecois culture also dominate the region's music and dance. "Contra Dancing" is a popular and common community activity similar to square-dancing that is usually backed by Irish, Acadian, or other folk music.
The New England Sports Network covers New England sports teams throughout the region, save for Fairfield County, Connecticut.New England Sports Network. Available at: http://www.boston.com/sports/nesn/aboutus/FAQ/ (Accessed 19 july 2006).
Education
New England is home to four of the eight Ivy League universities. Pictured here is Dartmouth Hall on the campus of Dartmouth College.
In terms of public schools, New England states pay the most on their students and tend to pay teachers more than the rest of the country. As of 2005, the National Education Association ranked Connecticut with the highest-paid teachers in the country. Massachusetts and Rhode Island ranked eighth and ninth, respectively. Every state but New Hampshire is in the top ten for educational spending per student.http://www.nea.org/edstats/index.htmlBoston Latin School is the oldest public high school in America."She graduated from the elite Boston Latin School, the oldest high school in America, in 1999." Taken from the New York Post, available at: http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/64304.htm (Accessed 19 July 2006).
The region has also drawn the attention of authors and poets hailing from other parts of the United States. John Updike, originally from Pennsylvania, eventually moved to Ipswich, Massachusetts, which served as the model for the fictional New England town of Tarbox in his 1968 novel Couples. Robert Frost, who was born in California, is almost always associated with New England; he moved to Massachusetts during his teen years and published his first poem in Lawrence. Arthur Miller, a New York City native, used New England as the setting for some of his works, most notably The Crucible.
New England is also the setting for most of the gothic horror stories of H.P. Lovecraft, who lived his life in Providence, Rhode Island. Real New England towns such as Ipswich, Newburyport, Rowley, and Marblehead are given fictional names such as Dunwich, Arkham, Innsmouth, Kingsport, and Miskatonic and then featured quite often in his stories.
More recently, Stephen King has also used the small towns of the New England state of Maine as the setting for much of his horror fiction, with much of the action taking place in or near the fictional town of Castle Rock.
The novel Ethan Frome was written in 1911 by Edith Wharton. It is set in turn-of-the-century New England, in the fictitious town of Starkfield, Massachusetts. Like much literature of the region, it plays off themes of isolation and hopelessness.
Sites of interest
Boats on the Kennebunk River between Kennebunk and Kennebunkport.
Some obvious sites of interest in New England are historical cities like Boston, Providence, Hartford, Portsmouth, Newburyport, Plymouth, and Gloucester.
The financial magazine Money, in a 2006 survey entitled "Best Places to Live," ranked several New England towns and cities in the top one hundred. In Connecticut, Fairfield was ranked ninth, while Stamford was ranked forty-sixth. In Maine, Portland ranked eighty-ninth. In Massachusetts, Newton was ranked twenty-second. In New Hampshire, Nashua was ranked eighty-seventh. In Rhode Island, Cranston was ranked seventy-eighth, while Warwick was ranked eighty-third.http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2006/top100/
* Adams, James Truslow. The Founding of New England (1921) * Adams, James Truslow. Revolutionary New England, 1691-1776 (1923) * Adams, James Truslow. New England in the Republic, 1776-1850 (1926) * Andrews, Charles M. The Fathers of New England: A Chronicle of the Puritan Commonwealths (1919), short survey. * Axtell, James, ed. The American People in Colonial New England (1973), new social history * Black, John D. The rural economy of New England: a regional study (1950 * Brewer, Daniel Chauncey. Conquest of New England by the Immigrant (1926). * Conforti, Joseph A. Imagining New England: Explorations of Regional Identity from the Pilgrims to the Mid-Twentieth Century (2001) * Dwight, Timothy. Travels Through New England and New York (circa 1800) 4 vol. (1969) Online at: vol 1; vol 2; vol 3; vol 4 * Hall, Donald, foreword, Feintuch, Burt and Watters, David H., editors, Encyclopedia of New England (2005) * Karlsen, Carol F. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England (1998) * Lilly, Lamberth. History of New England (1847) * Lockridge, Kenneth A. A New England Town: The First Hundred Years: Dedham, Massachusetts, 1636-1736 (1985), new social history * McPhetres, S. A. A political manual for the campaign of 1868, for use in the New England states, containing the population and latest election returns of every town (1868) * Palfrey, John Gorham. History of New England (5 vol 1859-90) * Zimmerman, Joseph F. The New England Town Meeting: Democracy in Action (1999) * NEW YORK: Atlas of Historical County Boundaries; John H. Long, Editor; Compiled by Kathryn Ford Thorne; A Project of the Dr. William M. Scholl Center for Family and Community History; The new Berry Library; Simon & Schuster; 1993. * Contributors: U.S. Census Bureau. "Census Regions and Divisions of the United States" (PDF). Retrieved May 11, 2005 * The Washington Post, Mass. Bill Requires Health Coverage * The Guardian'', Movers and Shakers
