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native Americas and the Europeans
Native Americans and later European settlers built their villages on the second terraces, with farm fields below. By the time Europeans arrived in the valley in 1614, Native Americans had been regularly burning the forest undergrowth and farming in the region for centuries -
William Pynchon
Pynchon relied on an Indian interpreter and assistant in business dealings with other native groups. Not all of Pynchon's business dealings were successful, however. In the late 1630s, Connecticut settlers suffered a corn shortage as a consequence of the Pequot War. -
Agawam and nonotuck
Both sold land to English settlers, the Agawams in 1636 and the Nonotucks in 1653. Eventually the Agawams (c.1655), in exchange for an English-built fort, sold their remaining planting grounds to them. -
John Pynchon
John held numerous local political posts, and his marriage to the daughter of the Connecticut Governor in 1645 extended his sphere of influence in and beyond the Springfield colony. -
The Springfield armory
The Springfield Armory played a key role in the western Massachusetts uprising known as Shays' Rebellion. Daniel Shays and other disaffected farmers led an insurrection in 1787 and marched on the Armory with the objective of seizing barracks, cannons, muskets and ammunition. -
Immigration from Russia and the Soviet Union
Russian immigrants first came to Springfield in the late 1800s to escape political and religious persecution and to seek better economic opportunities. More Russians immigrated to escape the upheaval caused by the Russo-Japanese War in 1905. -
Thomas Thomas
Thomas Thomas' journey to Springfield was atypical, in that he arrived not as a runaway but as a freeman. After purchasing his freedom from his Maryland master for $400, and apparently familiar with Springfield's reputation as a haven for escaping and former slaves, Thomas settled in the city in the late 1830s. -
John brown
In November 1847, Brown met slavery's most renowned critic, Frederick Douglass, who interrupted a speaking tour to meet him in Springfield. The two men shared dinner and spoke well into the night. -
French Canadian immagrants in Holyoke
Beginning in the 1840s, famine and overpopulation prompted many French-Canadians to immigrate to the United States. At the same time, rapid industrialization was creating many new jobs in New England. Their close proximity and willingness to work for low wages made French-Canadian laborers attractive to Massachusetts manufacturers, and French-Canadians were the single largest source for new immigration to Holyoke, MA from the 1860s until after the turn of the century, reaching a peak population -
The civil rights moments in Springfield
Not until the 1960s did the U.S. Congress pass legislation that prohibited racial segregation and discrimination in voting, education, employment and housing. The new laws did not end racism, however, and the struggle of African Americans for acceptance in the American mainstream has been long and troubling in light of the ideals upon which the country was founded.
