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Uniquely Western Mas
“The question is not what you look The land that is now Massachusetts has had an indigenous presence since the glaciers retreated and exposed rich land. The first permanent European settlement in New England was established by the Pilgrims in 1620 on Mohegan and Wampanoag land. Legend states that the following year the first Thanksgiving was held between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag. Squanto, a native who had been captured, enslaved in Europe and returned to his homeland, functioned as a translator. #VisitMa Colonists quickly moved to Western MA’s Northampton, 81-miles from Boston, in 1654. They hoped to obtain cultivable land and lucrative opportunities to barter with the indigenous people. Northampton was deemed Paradise City by Jenny Lind in 1920 because of its enviable geography amid farmland, the meandering Connecticut River, originally the Kwinitekw, and the Western Massachusetts Mountains. visithampshirecounty.com In 1638 The first MA documented slave ship, The Desire, brought captives from the Caribbean to sell. Three years later the state became the first to legalize slavery. It was abolished in 1783. -118- | ExtendedWeekendGetaways ~ December, 2023
Calvin Coolidge
Northampton was always progressive and in the 1800s it was a home of radical abolitionism and had several documented Underground Railroad sites. When the abolitionist settled there they established a silk mill and named the area Northampton Association of Education and Industry. All members,
black and white held equal shares in the mill and males and females had voting rights. The enactment of the Fugitive Slave Act essentially ended the community. Fugitives were no longer safe there and moved to Canada. The community attracted prominent African Americans, Frederick Douglass, David Ruggles and Sojourner Truth. Truth lived there for nine years after purchasing her home with the proceeds from her narrative. A life-sized statue of her stands in a small square surrounded by informational plaques. @ sojournertruth
