Massachusetts

by Deborah H. Deford

- Re-launch of the highly successful series The Thirteen Colonies.
- Four-color illustrations, photographs. Timelines, and activities, enhance student experience.
- Series targeted directly to the grade children study the colonization of America (5th)
- At 128 pages, this book provides the most in-depth coverage of the subject matter for this age group. (Competing series by Child's World is for 3rd-5th graders and is 40 pages.)
- Each book adheres to national social studies standards.
Grades 5-8 National Social Studies Standards
Time, Continuity & Change: II
- Identify and use processes important to restructuring and reinterpreting the past
- Identify and use key concepts such as chronology, causality, change, conflict and complexity to explain, analyze and show connections among patterns of historical change and continuity.
Power, Authority, & Governance: VI
- Identifies basic features of the U.S. political system
- Describes how government powers are acquired, used, and justified
- Describes how governments respond to forces of unity and diversity

124 pages, Library Binding

First published September 1, 2004

Reviews

[Dad · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very informative. My wife and I read it together, often as we drove in the car. We were reading it because we are planning to take a tour called "The Mayflower Tour" celebrating the 400th anniversary of the landing of the Mayflower on Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts. It is actually the 401st year this year but due to the Covid-19 pandemic it was put off to this year.
Massachusetts has a lot to do with the Puritans and Pilgrims. They are religious people but sometimes the results that happen are not backed up by their religious beliefs. I guess, that is like any other society deeply involved with religion. As I think of it that would really involve any major one. The Romans had their gods and eventually Christ. Mayans and Aztecs had gods too. I don't think taking out the heart of someone like the Aztecs did would be "religious" although they somehow saw it as such.
In Salem, Massachusetts, burning persons accused of being witches at the stake would not be considered religious either. Yes, religion is good but religious people do not always do good. To me, it doesn't matter if someone is religious or "secular." If they are doing good things then they are good. If they are doing bad things then they are bad whether or not they espouse religion. To me religion is good in my life because it points us in the direction of good and in my case, that is the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Probably the thing that I learned about that I didn't know was that the King Phillip War was fought between the colonists and several tribes of Indians. Both sides lost a lot of people; however, upon reading of many of things the white man did to the Indians, it is hard to hear them refer to the Indians as "savages." The Indians of that particular tribe that survived were sold as slaves. That is so sad. I just want to know who "authorized this action?"
Massachusetts was also a place that many of the initial skirmishes with the British and the colonies took place. Many of the meetings for the beginnings of the United States took place here.

[Sarah]

middle school