John Winthrop founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 as a place where Puritans could live peacefully without the persecution they had endured in England and Europe.  The Colony prospered and soon had organized a government.  By Revolutionary War times Boston was the hotbed of radical activity. Radicals in Boston carried out the Boston Tea Party. War began in Massachusetts in the countryside not far from Boston.  The Battles of Lexington and Concord started the Colonies on their way to freedom.