On This Date- Ji-Hae Kim

On October 8, 1633, the Massachusetts Bay Colony formed its first government in the town of Dorchester. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was one of the original English settlements in the New World.

I learned in U.S. History that about 1,000 Puritan refugees from England came with John Winthrop to the present day area of Massachusetts under a charter that the Massachusetts Bay Company obtained from King Charles I. The charter empowered the company to trade and colonize in the New World. 

Their purpose, John Winthrop said, was to become a "city upon a hill" and show the world how to become a perfect religious settlement. They thought that this city would become one that the rest of the world would desire to emulate. The Puritans established a theocratic government on October 8, 1633 where authority was limited to church members. It was dominated by a small group of leaders, who were strongly influenced by Puritan religious leaders. 

The Mass. Bay Colony influenced the world. I don't particularly care for the hysteria during the events of the Salem Witch Trials. But the impact of the somewhat successful and fairly independent government in the New World impacted the world for many years to come. The colony's eventual estrangement to England was a step towards a new nation in the New World. The idealistic colony that came to the New World for religious freedom and trade became a part of the nation that I, in fact, am living in now.