Politics of Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is often categorized politically as socially progressive and liberal. The two main political parties are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. The commonwealth, especially Boston, is known for having a passion for politics (particularly social progressivism and liberalism).

In the early 19th century, Boston was a center of the socially progressive movements in antebellum New England. The abolitionist, women's rights, and temperance movements all originated in New England, and Boston became a stronghold of such movements. Boston also flourished culturally with the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne becoming popular. The belief in social progress was strongly influenced by the Second Great Awakening sweeping the Northern United States at the time, and Boston gained a reputation for radical politics. During the Civil War, the Radical Republicans had strong support from Massachusetts. Tension, however, existed between more moderate and conservative Bostonians and the abolitionists. Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison was almost killed by a mob when his office was raided in 1837. Freed African-American slaves found little acceptance outside the abolitionist and early civil rights organizations. However, Boston was still probably the United States' most liberal city at the time, and blacks found more sympathy there than anywhere else in the nation.

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