Why do they call massachusetts the bay state

The Bay State is not the only nickname Massachusetts goes by, it is, however, the most popular and well-known one. Massachusetts earned the nickname because of its many bays, five to be precise. Much the same as other states, Massachusetts has adopted a motto as well as the Massachusetts state nickname that represents the state and its people in a multitude of ways, past and present.

It is also the official motto of the U. Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. If you are interested in the Massachusetts state nickname, chances are you will enjoy learning the Massachusetts state abbreviation , so take a look at our page dedicated to this.

The Massachusetts state abbreviation is one that gets confused with other states with similar names. In the era leading to , when the state Constitution was ratified, a popular term for a whole body of people constituting a nation or state was the word "Commonwealth". This term was the preferred usage of some political writers. There also may have been some anti-monarchic sentiment in using the word "Commonwealth". The name, which in the eighteenth century was used to mean "republic", can be traced to the second draft of the state Constitution, written by John Adams and accepted by the people in In this second draft, Part Two of the Constitution, under the heading "Frame of Government", states, "that the people The people had overwhelmingly rejected the first draft of the Constitution in , and in that draft and all acts and resolves up to the time between and , the name "State of Massachusetts Bay"had been used.

In his "Life and Works", Adams, wrote: "There is, however, a peculiar sense in which the words republic, commonwealth, popular state, are used by English and French writers, who mean by them a democracy, a government in one centre, and that centre a single assembly, chosen at stated periods by the people and invested with the whole sovereignty, the whole legislative, executive and judicial power to be included in a body or by committees as they shall think proper".

In the book, Smith describes New England, which he visited on a scouting trip in , and he specifically mentions the area of Massachusetts. Although Smith was the one who gave New England its name, it seems from the text that the natives were the ones who gave Massachusetts its name, although, at the time it only applied to the specific area the Massachusetts tribe lived in near the Massachusetts Bay:. Smith also makes several references in his text to the Massachusetts Bay, which it is still called today.

When colonists eventually decided to settle the area, they adopted the name Massachusetts for their new colony. When the company sailed to the New World and officially settled the area near the Massachusetts Bay, they called it the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Later, after the colony lost its charter in , the colony was restructured and renamed the Dominion of New England by the British government. Massachusetts has been at the forefront of American history for well over years. The Pilgrims came ashore in , and Massachusetts became the site of the first Thanksgiving in the fall of In the 's, as the economy of the area benefited from abundant fishing, trading, and shipbuilding, the residents became increasingly rebellious against Britain's persistent taxation.

In , history was made when Bostonians had their famous Tea Party, boarding a British tea ship, and tossing the tea into Boston Harbor in protest of unfair taxation. As skirmishes with the British became earnest battles of the Revolution, the spirit of the patriots swept the countryside, and when the British were forced out of Boston in , the Americans knew the tides were turning in their favor.

Massachusetts gained statehood in , and has sent four of her own and one adopted son to become President of the United States: John F. Though born in Vermont, Calvin Coolidge served as Governor of Massachusetts from and went on to be elected President of the United States in One of our visitors pointed out to us that all of the four Massachusetts presidents were born in the same county - Norfolk County , the County of Presidents.

Massachusetts means "large hill place. Massachusetts is most commonly known as "The Bay State" or "The Old Bay State" in reference to the Cape Cod Bay where early settlements were made and to the Massachusetts Bay Company given a royal charter in to promote settlement of the new land "from sea to shining sea. The Puritans served brown bread and baked beans on Sundays because they could be prepared on Saturday. From this practice came the nickname, "The Baked Bean State.