Its motto: By Sword We Seek Peace, but Peace Only Under

Liberty.

Its nicknames: Baked Bean State, Bay State, Old Colony

State.

Sandy shores, gentle hills, and our nation's heritage

Massachusetts abounds in images that have helped form the sense of America's past: the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock, the first Thanksgiving'¹, the Boston Tea Party², the minutemen at the battles of Lexington and Concord. Yet the state that looms so large in the nation's story is not very big at all. Only five states are smaller, and three hours is all it takes to drive from the Atlantic coast to the ski slopes of the Berkshires in the west.

Massachusetts seashores are among New England's finest, with rocky coves and inlets and vast stretches of sandy beach. Its eastern shore is pummeled by the open Atlantic, while its western coast is swept by the gentle waves of sheltered Cape Cod Bay. Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, the islands just south of the cape whose fortunes were founded on 19th-century whaling evoke a strong feeling of the area's nautical history. It was Nantucket that Herman Melville depicted in his classic novel «Moby Dick.»

Inland, beyond the broad coastal plain, lies a wide swath of uplands — a southward extension of the White Mountains. From these heights, the land slopes gently down to the banks of the Connecticut River, New England's longest and most important waterway.

Massachusetts was among the first states to experience the rapid growth of cities, and today it is one of America's most urbanized and industrialized regions.

Massachusetts residents have learned to live in comfortable proximity with history, and many places are so authentically preserved and restored that they bring the past to life. But what characterizes Massachusetts today is more than the mixing of old and new; it is the invigorating blend of diverse ethnic groups: Irish, Portuguese, Italian, Greek, Jewish, Chinese, French Canadian, and most recently, Indian, Korean, and Japanese. Whatever their native origins, these new residents have been quick to adopt the spirit of independence that made the citizens of Massachusetts leaders in American Revolution — a spirit that has inspired Bay Staters ever since.

Massachusetts is famous for its colleges — 106 in all. Harvard, the oldest college in the nation, was founded at Cambridge with a colonial government grant in 1636. Mount Holyoke, the oldest women's college, was established at South Hadley in 1837.

A lake near Webster has the remarkable Indian name of Chargoggaggoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaug, which means "I fish on my side of the lake, you fish on yours, and no one fishes in between." The faint-hearted call it Lake Webster.

By ratifying Constitution in 1788, Massachusetts became the 6th state.

(”The USA Diversity of 50 States”)