Blog 3: Colonies

              If I were to have lived in any of the early American colonies, I would have wanted to live in the New England colony and more specifically, the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  In this colony, the immigrants had the ability to govern themselves instead of being directly ruled by a European country.  The residents of the Massachusetts Bay Colony were some of the most determined people in the New World.  They set off to set up a city that everyone would look toward.  Aside from their great ambitions, these colonists did not run into much Native Americans due to an epidemic that killed most of them in the area a decade before they arrived.  This meant no trade with them of course, but it also meant no war, which most interactions with natives usually ended up being.

               Unlike many of the other early colonies, the Massachusetts Bay Colony consisted of immigrants that possessed skills such as farmers and carpenters, and not just a majority of wealthy people who needed slaves or servants to work for them.  Another distinguishing thing about them is that they were made up of mainly families.  Unlike the other colonies that were often single men that came to the new world to find work.  This would allow the colony to grow and flourish without the “importation” of single women.

               The colony had some drawbacks though.  The Massachusetts Bay Colony did not escape the deadly ailments that plagued all the colonies which killed many people.  Another drawback in my opinion is that the Massachusetts Bay Colony did partake, like many other colonies, in trying to convert Native Americans to Christianity/European lifestyles by removing them from their local communities.