1.
Roxbury, Boston
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The city asserts that it serves as the heart of Black culture in Boston. Roxbury was one of the first towns founded in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630, the original boundaries of the Town of Roxbury can be found in Drakes History of Roxbury and its noted Personages. OBryant School of Mathematics & Science, Y. M. C. A, harvard Medical School and many hospitals and schools in the area. This side of the Muddy River is Roxbury, the side is Brookline. Here, Walnut Avenue changes its name to Sigourney Street, indicating the area is now Jamaica Plain, one side of Columbia Road is Roxbury, the other Dorchester. Melnea Cass Boulevard is located approximately over the Roxbury Canal that brought boats into Roxbury, the neighborhood has recently added a new police station improving response time assisting its residents. This facility opened in 2011, and is energy efficient, also assisting the community are programs such as the Child Services of Roxbury, the youth build Boston programs, and many more. New initiatives by the city of Boston have propelled the neighborhood of Boston to become eco-friendly, there has been development of new E+ buildings. Along with the move into a community, each building is now mandated to provide accessibility to people with handicaps. The high density population leads to large amounts of crime, 1/4 of the population are immigrants and half of the population is under 25 years old. Many of the adults are young professionals, many jobs in Roxbury are office and retail oriented. There are also many emergency response facilities who help underprivileged people in the area, such as youth centers, the Massachusetts Bay Colony found the coastline largely empty, and quickly founded a group of six towns, among them Boston, Cambridge, and Roxbury. For more than 200 years, Roxbury also encompassed West Roxbury, three miles south the only land route to the capital led through Roxbury, which made the town important for both transportation and trade. Roxbury in the 1600s also held many of the resources English colonists prized, potentially arable land, timber, the settlers of Roxbury originally comprised the congregation of the First Church in Roxbury, established in 1632. During this time the church served not only as a place of worship, the congregation had no time to raise a meeting house the first winter and so met with the neighboring congregation in Dorchester. One of the leaders of this church was Amos Adams. The first meeting house was built in 1632, and the building pictured here is the meeting house. The town is located where Boston was previously connected to mainland Massachusetts by an isthmus called Boston Neck or alternately
2.
Massachusetts
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It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island to the south, New Hampshire and Vermont to the north, and New York to the west. The state is named for the Massachusett tribe, which inhabited the area. The capital of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England is Boston, over 80% of Massachusetts population lives in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, a region influential upon American history, academia, and industry. Originally dependent on agriculture, fishing and trade, Massachusetts was transformed into a manufacturing center during the Industrial Revolution, during the 20th century, Massachusetts economy shifted from manufacturing to services. Modern Massachusetts is a leader in biotechnology, engineering, higher education, finance. Plymouth was the site of the first colony in New England, founded in 1620 by the Pilgrims, in 1692, the town of Salem and surrounding areas experienced one of Americas most infamous cases of mass hysteria, the Salem witch trials. In 1777, General Henry Knox founded the Springfield Armory, which during the Industrial Revolution catalyzed numerous important technological advances, in 1786, Shays Rebellion, a populist revolt led by disaffected American Revolutionary War veterans, influenced the United States Constitutional Convention. In the 18th century, the Protestant First Great Awakening, which swept the Atlantic World, in the late 18th century, Boston became known as the Cradle of Liberty for the agitation there that led to the American Revolution. The entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts has played a commercial and cultural role in the history of the United States. Before the American Civil War, Massachusetts was a center for the abolitionist, temperance, in the late 19th century, the sports of basketball and volleyball were invented in the western Massachusetts cities of Springfield and Holyoke, respectively. Many prominent American political dynasties have hailed from the state, including the Adams, both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also in Cambridge, have been ranked among the most highly regarded academic institutions in the world. Massachusetts public school students place among the top nations in the world in academic performance, the official name of the state is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. While this designation is part of the official name, it has no practical implications. Massachusetts has the position and powers within the United States as other states. Massachusetts was originally inhabited by tribes of the Algonquian language family such as the Wampanoag, Narragansett, Nipmuc, Pocomtuc, Mahican, and Massachusett. While cultivation of crops like squash and corn supplemented their diets, villages consisted of lodges called wigwams as well as longhouses, and tribes were led by male or female elders known as sachems. Between 1617 and 1619, smallpox killed approximately 90% of the Massachusetts Bay Native Americans, the first English settlers in Massachusetts, the Pilgrims, arrived via the Mayflower at Plymouth in 1620, and developed friendly relations with the native Wampanoag people. This was the second successful permanent English colony in the part of North America that later became the United States, the event known as the First Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World which lasted for three days
3.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
4.
Boston
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Boston is the capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Boston is also the seat of Suffolk County, although the county government was disbanded on July 1,1999. The city proper covers 48 square miles with a population of 667,137 in 2015, making it the largest city in New England. Alternately, as a Combined Statistical Area, this wider commuting region is home to some 8.1 million people, One of the oldest cities in the United States, Boston was founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers from England. It was the scene of several key events of the American Revolution, such as the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston. Upon U. S. independence from Great Britain, it continued to be an important port and manufacturing hub as well as a center for education, through land reclamation and municipal annexation, Boston has expanded beyond the original peninsula. Its rich history attracts many tourists, with Faneuil Hall alone drawing over 20 million visitors per year, Bostons many firsts include the United States first public school, Boston Latin School, first subway system, the Tremont Street Subway, and first public park, Boston Common. Bostons economic base also includes finance, professional and business services, biotechnology, information technology, the city has one of the highest costs of living in the United States as it has undergone gentrification, though it remains high on world livability rankings. Bostons early European settlers had first called the area Trimountaine but later renamed it Boston after Boston, Lincolnshire, England, the renaming on September 7,1630 was by Puritan colonists from England who had moved over from Charlestown earlier that year in quest of fresh water. Their settlement was limited to the Shawmut Peninsula, at that time surrounded by the Massachusetts Bay and Charles River. The peninsula is thought to have been inhabited as early as 5000 BC, in 1629, the Massachusetts Bay Colonys first governor John Winthrop led the signing of the Cambridge Agreement, a key founding document of the city. Puritan ethics and their focus on education influenced its early history, over the next 130 years, the city participated in four French and Indian Wars, until the British defeated the French and their Indian allies in North America. Boston was the largest town in British America until Philadelphia grew larger in the mid-18th century, Bostons harbor activity was significantly curtailed by the Embargo Act of 1807 and the War of 1812. Foreign trade returned after these hostilities, but Bostons merchants had found alternatives for their investments in the interim. Manufacturing became an important component of the economy, and the citys industrial manufacturing overtook international trade in economic importance by the mid-19th century. Boston remained one of the nations largest manufacturing centers until the early 20th century, a network of small rivers bordering the city and connecting it to the surrounding region facilitated shipment of goods and led to a proliferation of mills and factories. Later, a network of railroads furthered the regions industry. Boston was a port of the Atlantic triangular slave trade in the New England colonies
5.
Harvard University
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Although never formally affiliated with any denomination, the early College primarily trained Congregationalist and Unitarian clergy. Its curriculum and student body were gradually secularized during the 18th century, james Bryant Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II and began to reform the curriculum and liberalize admissions after the war. The undergraduate college became coeducational after its 1977 merger with Radcliffe College, Harvards $34.5 billion financial endowment is the largest of any academic institution. Harvard is a large, highly residential research university, the nominal cost of attendance is high, but the Universitys large endowment allows it to offer generous financial aid packages. Harvards alumni include eight U. S. presidents, several heads of state,62 living billionaires,359 Rhodes Scholars. To date, some 130 Nobel laureates,18 Fields Medalists, Harvard was formed in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1638, it obtained British North Americas first known printing press, in 1639 it was named Harvard College after deceased clergyman John Harvard an alumnus of the University of Cambridge who had left the school £779 and his scholars library of some 400 volumes. The charter creating the Harvard Corporation was granted in 1650 and it offered a classic curriculum on the English university model—many leaders in the colony had attended the University of Cambridge—but conformed to the tenets of Puritanism. It was never affiliated with any denomination, but many of its earliest graduates went on to become clergymen in Congregational. The leading Boston divine Increase Mather served as president from 1685 to 1701, in 1708, John Leverett became the first president who was not also a clergyman, which marked a turning of the college toward intellectual independence from Puritanism. When the Hollis Professor of Divinity David Tappan died in 1803 and the president of Harvard Joseph Willard died a year later, in 1804, in 1846, the natural history lectures of Louis Agassiz were acclaimed both in New York and on the campus at Harvard College. Agassizs approach was distinctly idealist and posited Americans participation in the Divine Nature, agassizs perspective on science combined observation with intuition and the assumption that a person can grasp the divine plan in all phenomena. When it came to explaining life-forms, Agassiz resorted to matters of shape based on an archetype for his evidence. Charles W. Eliot, president 1869–1909, eliminated the position of Christianity from the curriculum while opening it to student self-direction. While Eliot was the most crucial figure in the secularization of American higher education, he was motivated not by a desire to secularize education, during the 20th century, Harvards international reputation grew as a burgeoning endowment and prominent professors expanded the universitys scope. Rapid enrollment growth continued as new schools were begun and the undergraduate College expanded. Radcliffe College, established in 1879 as sister school of Harvard College, Harvard became a founding member of the Association of American Universities in 1900. In the early 20th century, the student body was predominately old-stock, high-status Protestants, especially Episcopalians, Congregationalists, by the 1970s it was much more diversified
6.
Increase Sumner
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Increase Sumner was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician from Massachusetts. He was the governor of Massachusetts, serving from 1797 to 1799. Trained as a lawyer, he served in the government of Massachusetts during the American Revolutionary War. Appointed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court the same year, he served there as a justice until 1797. He was elected governor of Massachusetts three times by wide margins, but died shortly after the start of his third term. His descendants include his son William H. Sumner, for whom the Sumner Tunnel in Boston, Massachusetts is named, Increase Sumner was born on November 27,1746 in Roxbury, Province of Massachusetts Bay, one of eight children of Increase Sumner and Sarah Sharp. The elder Increase Sumner was a farmer descended from early settlers of Dorchester, he held a number of public offices including coroner for Suffolk County. In 1752 Sumner enrolled in the school in Roxbury, now Roxbury Latin School. Sumner excelled at school, and over the resistance of his father was enrolled at Harvard College in 1763, after graduating from Harvard, Sumner took charge of the Roxbury school, where he taught for two years while he apprenticed law under Samuel Quincy, the provincial solicitor general. He sought to study under John Adams, but the latter had enough students, Adams wrote that Sumner was a promising genius, and a studious and virtuous youth. Sumner was admitted to the bar in 1770 and opened a law office in Roxbury that year, Sumner was chosen a member of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress in 1776 where he represented the town of Roxbury. In 1777 he participated in a convention to draft a new constitution. He continued to serve in the congress until the state constitution was adopted in 1780. This post he held for two years, in June 1782 he was elected to the Confederation Congress by the state legislature, replacing Timothy Danielson, who resigned, but Sumner never actually took the seat. In August 1782 Governor John Hancock nominated him as a justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to replace James Sullivan. He accepted this position instead of the seat, and served from 1782 to 1797. Details on his record are sparse, in part because few official court records survive from the time. Sumner did take detailed notes of many of the cases he heard, the period when he served in the Supreme Judicial Court included a time of great turmoil in Massachusetts
7.
Harvard College
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Harvard College is the undergraduate liberal arts college of Harvard University. Founded in 1636 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest institution of learning in the United States. The school came into existence in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony—though without a single building, in 1638, the college became home for North Americas first known printing press, carried by the ship John of London. Three years later, the college was renamed in honor of deceased Charlestown minister John Harvard who had bequeathed to the school his entire library, Harvards first instructor was schoolmaster Nathaniel Eaton, in 1639, he also became its first instructor to be dismissed, for overstrict discipline. The schools first students were graduated in 1642, in 1665, Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck from the Wampanoag … did graduate from Harvard, the first Indian to do so in the colonial period. The colleges of Englands Oxford and Cambridge Universities are communities within the university, each an association of scholars sharing room. The Indian College was active from 1640 to no later than 1693, the body known as The President and Fellows of Harvard College retains its traditional name despite having governance of the entire University. Radcliffe College originally paid Harvard faculty to repeat their lectures for women students, since the 1970s, Harvard has been responsible for undergraduate governance matters for women, women were still formally admitted to and graduated from Radcliffe until a final merger in 1999. About 2,000 students are admitted each year, representing between five and ten percent of those applying, of those admitted, approximately three-quarters choose to attend and these figures make Harvard perhaps the most selective and sought-after college in the world. Midway through the year, most undergraduates join one of fifty standard fields of concentration. Joint concentrations and special concentrations are also possible, a smaller number receive the Scientiarum Baccalaureus. There are also special programs, such as a five-year program leading to both a Harvard undergraduate degree and a Master of Arts from the New England Conservatory of Music. In 2012, dozens of students were disciplined for cheating on an exam in one course. The university instituted a code beginning in the fall of 2015. The total annual cost of attendance, including tuition and room and board, under financial aid guidelines adopted in 2012, families with incomes below $65,000 no longer pay anything for their children to attend, including room and board. Families with incomes between $65,000 to $150,000 pay no more than 10% of their annual income, grants total 88% of Harvards aid for undergraduate students, with aid also provided by loans and work-study. Each house is presided over by a senior-faculty Faculty Dean, while its Allston Burr Resident Dean supervises undergraduates day-to-day academic, many tutors reside in the House, as do the Faculty Dean and Resident Dean. The way in which students come to live in particular Houses has changed greatly over time, under the original draft system, Masters negotiated privately over the assignment of rising sophomores considered most—or least—promising
8.
American Revolutionary War
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From about 1765 the American Revolution had led to increasing philosophical and political differences between Great Britain and its American colonies. The war represented a culmination of these differences in armed conflict between Patriots and the authority which they increasingly resisted. This resistance became particularly widespread in the New England Colonies, especially in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. On December 16,1773, Massachusetts members of the Patriot group Sons of Liberty destroyed a shipment of tea in Boston Harbor in an event that became known as the Boston Tea Party. Named the Coercive Acts by Parliament, these became known as the Intolerable Acts in America. The Massachusetts colonists responded with the Suffolk Resolves, establishing a government that removed control of the province from the Crown outside of Boston. Twelve colonies formed a Continental Congress to coordinate their resistance, and established committees, British attempts to seize the munitions of Massachusetts colonists in April 1775 led to the first open combat between Crown forces and Massachusetts militia, the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Militia forces proceeded to besiege the British forces in Boston, forcing them to evacuate the city in March 1776, the Continental Congress appointed George Washington to take command of the militia. Concurrent to the Boston campaign, an American attempt to invade Quebec, on July 2,1776, the Continental Congress formally voted for independence, issuing its Declaration on July 4. Sir William Howe began a British counterattack, focussing on recapturing New York City, Howe outmaneuvered and defeated Washington, leaving American confidence at a low ebb. Washington captured a Hessian force at Trenton and drove the British out of New Jersey, in 1777 the British sent a new army under John Burgoyne to move south from Canada and to isolate the New England colonies. However, instead of assisting Burgoyne, Howe took his army on a campaign against the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia. Burgoyne outran his supplies, was surrounded and surrendered at Saratoga in October 1777, the British defeat in the Saratoga Campaign had drastic consequences. Giving up on the North, the British decided to salvage their former colonies in the South, British forces under Lieutenant-General Charles Cornwallis seized Georgia and South Carolina, capturing an American army at Charleston, South Carolina. British strategy depended upon an uprising of large numbers of armed Loyalists, in 1779 Spain joined the war as an ally of France under the Pacte de Famille, intending to capture Gibraltar and British colonies in the Caribbean. Britain declared war on the Dutch Republic in December 1780, in 1781, after the British and their allies had suffered two decisive defeats at Kings Mountain and Cowpens, Cornwallis retreated to Virginia, intending on evacuation. A decisive French naval victory in September deprived the British of an escape route, a joint Franco-American army led by Count Rochambeau and Washington, laid siege to the British forces at Yorktown. With no sign of relief and the situation untenable, Cornwallis surrendered in October 1781, Whigs in Britain had long opposed the pro-war Tory majority in Parliament, but the defeat at Yorktown gave the Whigs the upper hand
9.
Phillips Academy
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Phillips Academy Andover is a co-educational university-preparatory school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12, along with a post-graduate year. The school is located in Andover, Massachusetts, United States,25 miles north of Boston, Phillips Academy has 1,122 students, and is a selective school, accepting 13% of applicants. It is part of the Ten Schools Admissions Organization as well as the G20 Schools Group, originally a boarding school for boys, it turned coeducational in 1973, the year in which it merged with its neighbor girls school Abbot Academy. Phillips Academys endowment stood around $800 million in June 2011, the fourth-highest of any American secondary school. On November 14,2012, John G. Palfrey, Jr. Henry N. Ess III Professor of Law and Vice Dean for Library and Information Resources at Harvard Law School, was named the 15th Head of School. Phillips Academy admitted only boys until the school coeducational in 1973, the year of Phillips Academys merger with Abbot Academy. Abbot Academy, founded in 1828, was the first incorporated school for girls in New England, then-headmaster Theodore Sizer oversaw the merger. Andover traditionally educated its students for Yale, just as Phillips Exeter Academy educated its students for Harvard, the Phillipian was first published on July 28,1857, and has been published regularly since 1878. It retains financial and editorial independence from Phillips Academy, having completed a $500,000 endowment drive in 2014, students comprise the editorial board and make all decisions for the paper, consulting with two faculty advisors at their own discretion. The Philomathean Society is the oldest high school debate society in the nation, Phillips Academy also runs a five-week summer session for approximately 600 students entering grades 8 through 12. The two schools maintain a rivalry. The football teams have met every year since 1878, making it the oldest high school rivalry in the country. In 1882, the first high school teams were formed at Phillips Academy, Phillips Exeter Academy. Several figures from the period are associated with the school. George Washington spoke at the school in its first year, John Hancock signed the schools articles of incorporation. The great seal of the school was designed by Paul Revere, the Andover Theological Seminary was independent from Phillips Academy but shared the same board of directors. In 1908, the seminary departed Phillips Academy, leaving behind its key buildings, academic building Pearson Hall, small portions of Andovers campus were laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of Central Park and himself a graduate of the school. Reveres design of the seal incorporated bees, a beehive
10.
Andover, Massachusetts
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Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was settled in 1642 and later incorporated in 1646, as of the 2010 census, the population was 33,201. It is part of the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Massachusetts-New Hampshire metropolitan statistical area, part of the town comprises the census-designated place of Andover. In order to encourage settlement, early colonists were offered three years immunity from taxes, levies and services, the first permanent settlement in the Andover area was established in 1642 by John Woodbridge and a group of settlers from Newbury and Ipswich. Rogers Brook, a stream which cuts through the eastern part of town, is named in his honor. In May 1646 the settlement was incorporated as a town and was named Andover and this name was likely chosen in honor of the town of Andover in England, which was near the original home of some of the first residents. The first recorded meeting was held in 1656 in the home of settler John Osgood in what is now the town of North Andover. The old burying ground in what is now North Andover marks the center of the early town, contrary to popular belief, the towns split due to the location of the Old North Church, also located in what is now North Andover. King Philip was an Indian who organized a revolt against the white settlers throughout most of New England, six Indian raids occurred between 1676 and 1698 until ever-increasing numbers of white settlers established control of the land. Brown was arrested in Andover, Massachusetts but because he could not afford the $4,000 bail, brown was tried in June 1799. Brown wanted to plead guilty but Justice Samuel Chase wanted him to everybody who had helped him or who subscribed to his writings. Brown refused, was fined $480, and sentenced to eighteen months in prison, during the Salem witch trials in 1692, Andover resident Joseph Ballard asked for help for his wife from several girls in the neighboring Salem Village who were already identifying witches there. After visiting Elizabeth Ballard, the claimed that several people in Andover had bewitched her, Ann Foster, her daughter Mary Lacey Sr. During the course of the proceedings, more than 40 Andover citizens, mostly women. Three Andover residents, Martha Carrier, Mary Parker, and Samuel Wardwell, were convicted and executed and those who were not executed were granted reprieves by Gov. William Phips, but the convictions remained on their records. By 1705, Andovers population had begun to move southward and the idea of a new meeting house in the end of town was proposed. But despite this split, the town remained politically one unit, in 1854, a measure was passed to divide the town into two separate political units according to the old parish boundaries. The name Andover was assumed by the populous and wealthy West and South parishes
