In 1604 some 80 French colonists spent a winter on a small island on what today is the Maine-New Brunswick border. They left in spring to resettle in present-day Nova Scotia.
The first settlement in New England was Plymouth colony. It was chartered by a group commonly referred to as the Pilgrims in 1620, who set sail from England aboard the Mayflower in 1620 in search of religious freedom. This was 13 years after an earlier landing in Jamestown, Virginia.
England was soon settled by English Puritans and they were more prolific and this colony grew faster.
By the late 18th century, the British colonies of New England were among the first to demonstrate ambitions of independence from the British Crown; one of the most notable demonstrations was the Boston Tea Party of 1773. This incident happened when the British imposed the Tea Act (giving the East India Company an advantage in the colonial market), which prompted a group of colonists disguised as Mohawk tribesmen to board three British ships and dump 342 chests of tea into the harbor.
The American Revolutionary war broke out shortly after in 1775 and the Declaration of Independence was signed and adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. In the 19th century, New England also played a fundamental role in the movement to abolish slavery.
Industrial Revolution reached America in the first half of the 19th century. In Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, new factories sprang up to manufacture goods such as clothing, rifles, and clocks.
History of New England
