Northeastern United States
The Northeastern United States form one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. Located on the Atlantic coast of North America, the region borders Canada to its north, the Southern United States to its south, the Midwestern United States to its west, and the Atlantic Ocean to its east.
The Northeast is one of the four regions defined by the U.S. Census Bureau for the collection and analysis of statistics. The Census Bureau defines the region as including the six New England states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, and three lower North-Eastern states of New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. Some expanded definitions of the region include Mid-Atlantic locations such as Delaware, Maryland, Northern Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
The region is the base for the Northeast megalopolis, which includes many of the nation's largest metropolitan areas, including Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia. The megalopolis makes up 67% of the region's total population of 57,609,148. The gross domestic product of the region was $5.1 trillion as of 2022 and contains some of the most developed states based on the Human Development Index, with every state above the national average. It is also the most densely populated region in the United States, with. The U.S. Census Bureau defines the Northeast United States as having a total area of, making it the smallest region of the United States by total area.
History
Indigenous people
Anthropologists recognize the "Northeastern Woodlands" as one of the cultural regions that existed in the Western Hemisphere at the time of European colonists in the 15th and later centuries. Most did not settle in North America until the 17th century. The cultural area, known as the "Northeastern Woodlands", in addition to covering the entire Northeast U.S., also covered much of what is now Canada and other regions of what is now the eastern United States.Among the many tribes inhabiting this area were those that made up the Iroquois nations and the numerous Algonquian peoples. In the United States of the 21st century, 18 federally recognized tribes reside in the Northeast. For the most part, the people of the Northeastern Woodlands, on whose lands European fishermen began camping to dry their codfish in the early 1600s, lived in villages, especially after being influenced by agricultural traditions of the Ohio and Mississippi valley societies.
Colonial history
All of the U.S. states making up the Northeastern region were among the original Thirteen Colonies, though Maine and Vermont were part of other colonies before the United States became independent in the American Revolution. The two cultural and geographic regions that form parts of the Northeastern region have distinct histories. The first European explorer known to have explored the Atlantic shoreline of the Northeast since the Norse was Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524. His ship La Dauphine explored the coast from what is now known as Florida to New Brunswick.The first Europeans to settle and colonize New England were Pilgrims from England, who landed in present-day Massachusetts in 1620. The Pilgrims arrived on the ship Mayflower and founded Plymouth Colony so they could practice religion freely. Ten years later, a larger group of Puritans settled north of Plymouth Colony in Boston to form Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1636, colonists established Connecticut Colony and Providence Plantations.
Providence was founded by Roger Williams, who was banished by Massachusetts for his beliefs in freedom of religion, and it was the first colony to guarantee all citizens freedom of worship. Anne Hutchinson, who was also banished by Massachusetts, formed the town of Portsmouth. Providence, Portsmouth and two other towns consolidated to form the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
Henry Hudson explored the area of present-day New York in 1609 and claimed it for the Netherlands. His journey stimulated Dutch interest, and the area became known as New Netherland. In 1625, the city of New Amsterdam was designated the capital of the province. The Dutch New Netherland settlement along the Hudson River and, for a time, the New Sweden settlement along the Delaware River divided the English settlements in the north and the south. In 1664, Charles II of England formally annexed New Netherland and incorporated it into the English colonial empire. The territory became the colonies of New York and New Jersey. New Jersey was originally split into East Jersey and West Jersey until the two were united as a royal colony in 1702.
New England played a prominent role in early American education. Starting in the 17th century, the larger towns in New England opened grammar schools, the forerunner of the modern high school. The first public school in the English colonies was the Boston Latin School, founded in 1635. In 1636, the colonial legislature of Massachusetts founded Harvard College, the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States.
In 1681, William Penn, who wanted to give Quakers a land of religious freedom, founded Pennsylvania and extended freedom of religion to all citizens.
Penn strongly desired access to the sea for the Province of Pennsylvania and leased what then came to be known as the "Lower Counties on the Delaware" from the Duke. Penn established representative government and briefly combined his two possessions under one General Assembly in 1682.
By 1704, the province of Pennsylvania had grown so large that their representatives wanted to make decisions without the assent of the Lower Counties and the two groups of representatives began meeting on their own, one at Philadelphia, and the other at New Castle, Delaware. Penn and his heirs remained proprietors of both and always appointed the same person Governor for their province of Pennsylvania and their territory of the Lower Counties. The fact that Delaware and Pennsylvania shared the same governor was not unique. From 1703 to 1738, both New York and New Jersey shared a governor. Massachusetts and New Hampshire also shared a governor for some time.
American Revolution
The beginnings of the American Revolutionary War would be in the Northeast, specifically in Massachusetts. The Battles of Lexington and Concord in northeast of Boston would be the first military engagements between the Revolutionaries and the British. Many of the major battles of the revolution would be fought in the Northeast. The British would evacuate Boston in early-1776 and would move to capture New York City.The revolutionaries were pushed to the Delaware River before suddenly moving forward against the British in the Battles of Trenton and Princeton. A stalemate was reached in 1778, between the British and American Revolutionaries and continued until the end of the war in 1783. The war would move to southern states and eventually conclude with the Battle of Yorktown in Virginia.
Formation of the United States of America
The idea of an independent United States of America, with the designs of its government would be created primarily in the Northeast in a series of declarations, constitutions, and documents. The Continental Congresses would meet in Philadelphia, which would produce the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. Following the American Revolution, the capital of the newly formed United States would move around in the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. It was based in New York City from 1785 until 1790, when it was moved to Congress Hall in Philadelphia, where it remained for a decade, until 1800, when the construction of the new national capital of Washington, D.C. was completed.The Constitutional Convention was held in Philadelphia, where the new United States Constitution was drafted in 1787. 6 of the first 13 states to ratify the new constitution would be in the Northeast, with the last of the original 13, Rhode Island, ratifying the constitution in 1790. Vermont would be admitted in 1791 as the 14th state. The first Congress would convene in Federal Hall in New York City in March 1789.
Early and mid-19th century
Following the revolution the Northeast would see small skirmishes like the Whiskey Rebellion in western parts of Pennsylvania. Many northeastern states would continue trading with the British and other European powers. Tensions between the United States and Europe would sour in the lead up to the War of 1812.This caused certain trade merchants to meet in Hartford to propose seceding from the United States. The War of 1812 would see less fighting in the Northeast and instead more fighting in western and southern areas. A failed invasion of Canada and the occupation of Maine would be some of the major conflicts during the war. The war would end in 1815 and most of the Northeast has not seen any major conflict since then.
The American Industrial Revolution was launched in Blackstone Valley in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, where textile mills spread across New England, and in eastern Pennsylvania, where coal, steel, and industrialization launched the nation's manufacturing sector.
After the end of the War of 1812, industry boomed in the Northeast in the early and middle parts of the 19th century. With the construction of railroads and canals crossing the northeast and the rise of western territories and resources from the south, the Northeast experienced the development of new industries and a fast-growing population. Many of the coastal cities, including Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia, served as ocean trade ports for American goods.
Cities, including Allentown, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Rochester, and Syracuse, were settled and emerged as major industrial centers.
By 1860, New York City, based on its present-day boundaries, was the first U.S. city to reach a population exceeding one million. Due to the settlement of the Midwest and Great Plains, agriculture would collapse in the Mid-Atlantic and New England, with many farms being abandoned by the end of the century, returning to rural forest.
Conflicts with the south over the spread of slavery would become a large factor in the start of the American Civil War, between the United States and the Confederacy. The admission of Maine as a free state in exchange for Missouri becoming a slave state as part of the Missouri Compromise in 1820 would settle the final boundaries of the Northeastern states.
The Mason-Dixon line would be established as the border of slavery, following the border of Pennsylvania and Delaware/Maryland. Abolitionist movements would start in the Northeast and Midwest and would become prominent towards the mid-19th century, these groups advocated the shrinking or banning of slavery in the United States. Some Northeastern states still had small amounts of slaves into the 1850s, though some would ban it during the decade.
The election of 1860 led to the start of the Civil War; southern states seceded from the United States in late-1860 and early-1861. States like Maryland and Delaware would remain in the union, even with slavery still legal. For the first two years, the eastern theater of the war would remain in Virginia and Maryland, but in 1863 the war would reach its northeastern most extent in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The Battle of Gettysburg is considered a turning point in the Civil War, seeing the end of the Confederate push northwards.
While all Northeastern states would remain in the United States during the war, conflicts did arise, like the New York draft riots in 1863. The war would end in 1865 with the United States taking back control of Southern states.