The area which is now Boston was originally discovered by Captain John Smith, in 1614, while he was exploring New England.
Boston was settled permanently in 1630 by the Massachusetts Bay Company. Its name came from a town in Lincolnshire, England, home to some of the Puritans. The Puritans encountered hardly any resistance from the Massachuset Indian tribe that inhabited what is now Boston. In 1614 there were at least 3,000 Massachuset living in 20 villages around Boston Bay, but by the time settlers arrived in 1620 there were less than 800. In 1631 the Puritans counted less than 500. No organized groups of the Massachuset are known to have survived after 1800. It is believed that many of the tribe succumbed to diseases carried over by the Europeans. In Algonquin, Massachuset means, "at the range of hills."
In 1632 Boston became the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Over the next decade it also became the heart of commerce and shipbuilding in the area. Leaders such as Reverend John Cotton believed that the Puritans were God's chosen people, and that it was God's will that they should inhabit all the world.
During the second half of the 18th Century Boston became a hot bed of colonial discontent. Leaders such as Sam Adams stirred up popular ire against British rule and the imposition of taxes on paper and tea. To enforce their rule, the British occupied Boston and closed the harbor, leading eventually to the gathering of colonial soliders and the outbreak of the Revolutionary War.
Boston was again at the center of national politics in the 19th Century as the center of the abolishionist movement and the cradle of American literature.
Although waves of immigration in the 19th Century had a great effect on Boston, the Puritanical influence can still be felt, along with a long tradition of top notch education. Harvard, which was originally a school for ministers, is here, and Boston is the home of the nation's first public school.
Notable Bostonians include: Writer Edgar Allan Poe, Patriots Paul Revere and Samuel Adams, And poet/philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson.
The area which is now Boston was originally discovered by Captain John Smith, in 1614, while he was exploring New England. 
