Page 38 - (DK Eyewitness) Top 10 Travel Guide - New England

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Moments in History

10000 BC–AD 1000:
1
Settlement
As glaciers retreated from New
England some 12,000 years ago,
hunters moved in. By AD 1000,
they lived in seasonal villages and
farming augmented hunting and
fishing. Most spoke an Algonkian
language; their dialects persist on
Native lands in Massachusetts,
Maine, and Connecticut. Whale hunting, New Bedford
1785: Trade with China
1620: Colonization
2 4
In 1785, merchants from
Religious reformers from
England swarmed into New England; Salem, Massachusetts, opened
first the Pilgrims at Plymouth, China to American trade. By 1845,
Massachusetts (1620), then Puritan shipbuilders in New England had
colonies at Salem (1626) and Boston developed the Yankee clipper, a swift
(1630). Soon communities were sailing vessel that dominated the
springing up in Rhode Island, China trade well into the 1860s.
Connecticut, and New Hampshire.
1799–1821:
5
Industrialization and
Manufacturing
From 1799 to 1813, Eli Whitney’s
Connecticut gun plants pioneered
interchangeable parts and the
assembly line. In 1821, textile
entrepreneurs brought the Industrial
Revolution to Lowell, Massachusetts,
complete with purloined English
loom designs and a factory-city
scheme that was quickly replicated
throughout the region.
1820–60: Whaling
6
Hegemony
In the 1700s, Nantucket Islanders
were among the first to hunt whales
around the globe. The whale-oil
business proved immensely lucra-
tive, justifying larger ships and
Painting depicting the Revolution longer voyages. New Bedford,
Massachusetts, was the world
1775: Revolution
3 capital of whaling from the 1820s
until the 1960s, when petroleum
Tensions between mother
country and colonies came to a head displaced whale oil.
in 1775 with the occupation of Boston.
1861–5: Abolition and
On April 19, British redcoats and 7
American rebels exchanged fire in the Civil War
Lexington and Concord. Within weeks, New England led the fight to abolish
the American Revolution had begun. slavery in the United States. The

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