Yankees: Massachusetts and the New England states

Artful map project: Massachusetts
Originally uploaded by trudeau

New England is a region consisting of of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. New England is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada, and the State of New York, says Wikipedia.

In one of the earliest European settlements in North America, Pilgrims from England first settled in New England in 1620, to form Plymouth Colony.

Ten years later, the Puritans settled north of Plymouth Colony in Boston, thus forming Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. In the late 18th century, the New England Colonies would be among the first North American British colonies to demonstrate ambitions of independence from the British Crown through the American Revolution.

New England led America in -
- American literature (The Scarlet Letter)
- philosophy (Walden, by Thoreau)
- free public education
- the movement to abolish slavery in the United States.
- first region of the US to be transformed by the Industrial Revolution.

Today, New England is a major center of
education (MIT, Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, etc)
high technology (DEC, Raytheon)
insurance (Prudental)
medicine (Mass General Hospital, New England Journal of Medicine)
tourism (Plymouth Rock, Paul Revere House).

It is a crowded region, a competitive environment (whether on the freeway or in the general rat race) and a place of diverse ethnic groups (Asians, Canadians, Europeans, and, in Boston, Africa-Americans).