The Massachusetts Bay Colony got its start on June 14, 1630, when the Arbella came to anchor in Salem Harbor after a long, stormy voyage. One could argue the Arbella’s …

A Shaker Village ran on cooperation, order and efficiency. The Shakers devoted their lives to God, but that doesn’t mean they ignored material things. They paid a lot of attention …

Mary Ames and Emily Bliss in early June 1865 had spent nearly a month on Edisto Island, S.C., setting up a school for freed slaves. They were two well-to-do young white women from …

The story of the Rev. Joseph Moody, who preached with a handkerchief over his face, was too good for Nathaniel Hawthorne to pass up. The legend of the Puritan preacher …

In the spring of 1853, Boston-born Amelia Stewart Knight, her husband Dr. Joel Knight and their seven children set out from Monroe County, Iowa, along the Oregon Trail in a …

[jpshare]Commencement Day, beginning with Harvard, was always a proud moment for New England’s Puritans, who took to celebrating it as a holiday. Commencement Day was one of the few holidays they celebrated:  Training …