Maine and Massachusetts: A Shared History

Welcome to Did You Know a video series about Massachusetts where we take a look at interesting tidbits of state history? Each video will cover a different part of Massachusetts history and culture. Today, our topic is Maine. Did you know that the state of Maine was once a part of Massachusetts? Let's find out more. Maine, the Pine Tree state is the 23rd state in the United States, famous for its rugged landscapes, beautiful beaches and lobster. But Maine also has a long history as a hotspot of European colonies nation. And it was a part of Massachusetts before it became its own state. Today, we will take a look at May through history.

In 1605, an English explorer named George Weymouth came back to England after his first trip to Maine. He paid a visit to his good friend Ferdinando Gorgias to tell him all about his adventures. Weymouth also had five Native Americans who kidnaped to learn more about their land with the goal to colonize it for England. Ferdinando met those natives and got the idea that he could establish a colonial venture of his own.

With the help of a few connections, we just got a Royal charter in 1606 to start his new colony. The charter established the Virginia company to settle Virginia, a.k.a. the entire East Coast between Canada and Florida. The northern coast and southern coast were settled separately and Burgess was in charge of the northern half. In 1607, the Virginia company, consisting of two joint companies, the London Company and the Plymouth Company, founded separate colonies in North America.

The London company founded Jamestown and the Plymouth Company founded Pop Colony in what is now Maine. It was named after Sir John Popper, the Lord Chief Justice of England. The colony only lasted a year before the settlers went back to England, but it laid the groundwork for English colonization of Maine. After the problem, Colony failed, Gorges decided to petition King James, the first for another charter to establish war settlement.

The new charter was granted to Gorgeous and his friend Captain John Mason on August ten, 1622, and it named the Gwich'in Headland, Maine, for the first time. The name may have referenced the village of Broad Maine in Dorset County, where gorgeous ancestors lived. Settlements were planned to be built there in future years, and in 1629, Gorges and Mason split the land between them into New Hampshire, which included a bit of the Massachusetts North Shore in New Somerset Shire, which became sovereign and coastal Maine.

The Plymouth Company later called the Plymouth Council for New England, dissolved in 1635 after Gorges died in 1647. Nearby, Massachusetts Bay Colony started planning to take over Maine. But why did the Massachusetts government want to take over Maine? The officials likely wanted more land and resources, especially lumber. Maine was full of white pine, which was the best word for building ships.

Also, Gorges areas were not able to take control of their father's lands due to the civil war that was going on in England. In December 1651, Edward Godfrey, the new provincial governor of Maine, petitioned Parliament for recognition of their new provincial government and full rights of English citizens, which worried the government of Massachusetts opposed to the largely eight working settlers of the area.

The Puritan Massachusetts government hatched a plan to take over the poor and less settled lands of Maine, using political influence and slyly reorganizing the borders. In 1652, Massachusetts used Gorges Charter to claim that their border went further north than it actually did, and they acquired Casco Bay in Penobscot paid Maine. That same year, Massachusetts officials with military troops for intimidation forced Edward Godfrey and the leaders of Maine's cities and towns to sign the articles of submission that made Maine part of Massachusetts Bay Colony, or a colony within a colony.

Maine was officially purchased from gorgeous heirs by the Massachusetts government on March 13, 1677, for £1,250, and it would not become independent until 1820. By the 1670s, tensions were brewing in Massachusetts between the natives who were losing their land and the European settlers who wanted to expand their land claims. In 1675, these tensions erupted into King Philip's War, which was the first of a series of wars between the natives and the European settlers.

Later, wars like King William's War and Queen Anne's War in the late 1617 hundreds involved French settlers in northern New England and Quebec, who allied with the natives in their efforts to acquire land for themselves. These wars devastated Maine communities and many towns were burned to the ground. While many natives were killed and forced off their lands, many Maine settlers moved into Massachusetts and other colonies to get to safety, leaving the area mostly deserted after the British defeated the French and their native allies in the French and Indian War, which ended in 1763.

The French alliance with the natives was broken and settlers returned to Maine. Many moved further into the state and established towns in central and northern Maine during the Revolutionary War. Maine played a key role in the Patriot Cause as a buffer between British Nova Scotia and the revolutionary hub of Boston. The first naval battle of the War. The Battle of Machias.

In June 1775, saw Jeremiah O'Brien and his crew in the ship. Unity attacked the British ship Margaretta at Machias Harbor, killing its captain and capturing the vessel. O'Brien would go on to become a captain in the newly formed U.S. Navy and May would resist British control throughout the war with Native American side, such as the Big, More and illicit aiding Patriot troops.

Although Patriots in Maine helped the United States win its independence, they knew that their land was still under the control of Massachusetts. But while Maine residents were annoyed with being stuck under Massachusetts control for over a century, it was nothing compared to the anger they felt toward Massachusetts after the War of 1812, when large parts of Maine were occupied by British troops and the Massachusetts government did little to help.

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., Congress began debating the question of whether to admit Missouri into the United States as a slave state. Legislators were split on the decision because no other legislator was opposed expanding slavery and disrupting the equal numbers of slave and free states of which there were 11 each. Southern legislators favored expanding slavery and adding new territory to the country, so debate was going nowhere.

In 1819, Maine formally petitioned Massachusetts for statehood and the matter went to Washington, where legislators attached a new condition to the pending legislation on Missouri requiring Maine and Missouri to enter the union. At the same time, Maine is a free state and Missouri as a slave state. People in Maine, in Massachusetts were conflicted about this bill, but especially so in Maine.

Anti-Slavery sentiment was strong there, but not if the Maine citizens gained independence from Massachusetts. They would need to support a bill that expanded slavery. It was a bitter pill to swallow for many. In the end, the bill, nicknamed the Missouri Compromise, was ratified by President James Monroe on March 6th, 1820, making Maine an independent state. Even after Maine became a state.

Massachusetts still had some ties to it. Massachusetts owned half the public land in Maine until Maine bought it back in 1853. And Maine's lumber industry was highly sought after, especially as logging expanded into northern Maine. With the border between Canada and the state was still undetermined. This tension over land and labor rights led to the Aroostook War in 1838, actually a series of skirmishes over lands and lumber rights with Canadian and Maine officials being arrested and logging equipment being stolen.

The tensions led to a buildup of troops on both sides in the construction of new forts. But neither Britain nor the United States wanted another war. In 1842, the tensions were finally ended when two seasoned diplomats, Secretary of State Daniel Webster and British diplomat Alexander Baring the first Baron Ashburton, ended the conflict with the Webster Ashburton Treaty. The treaty formally established the northern border of Maine, as well as the northern borders of New Hampshire, Michigan and Minnesota.

Maine jumped at the chance to establish its state capital as soon as it gained statehood. The first capital was in Portland, but it was moved to Augusta in 1827 in order for the seat of state government to have a more central location in the new state. The new state House in Augusta was designed by Charles Paul Finch, who also designed the Massachusetts State House.

The two buildings had similar features, including a cupola, Italian style front with columns and two wings of the sides, both which also designed the grounds for the Maine State House, creating three terraces divided by lines of trees. The state house was completed in 1832 and has remained in use ever since as the seat of Maine's State government, both inches full.

Plans for the building and grounds still exist today and show a snapshot of his work to help establish this important building. While multiple renovations have changed the look of the State house over time, it represents the efforts Maine went through to achieve self-governance. Thanks for joining me to learn about the history of Maine. If you'd like to know more, check out these resources.

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