1638The first documented shipment of enslaved Africans to the Massachusetts Bay Colony arrived in Boston on the Desire.People and Communities, African American History, Indigenous People's History

In 1637, William Peirce, Master of the Salem ship <i>Desire</i> sailed to the Bahamas with fifteen Pequot boys and two Pequot women who had been taken prisoner during the war, to exchange them with African slaves. On Feb. 26, 1638, Peirce arrived back in Boston with “some cotton, and tobacco, and negroes, etc.”

Cape Ann Slavery & Abolition, https://capeannslavery.org/. First Slaves Arrive in Massachusetts. 26 Feb. 2007, https://www.massmoments.org/moment-details/first-slaves-arrive-in-massachusetts.html.The Middle Passage (U.S. National Park Service). https://www.nps.gov/articles/the-middle-passage.htm

Other Events

1637-1638
The last sagamore of the Pawtucket, Masconomet, deeded a portion of the land between Labor in Vain (in Ipswich) and Chebacco Creek (in Essex), to John Winthrop, Jr. for £20.
1638
A cut, or passage through the narrow part of the land from Ipswich Bay to Massachusetts Bay, was first discussed by the colonial government.
1639
Cape Ann was incorporated as a "fishing plantation."
1639
The General Court enacted a law that required records be kept of all wills, administrations, and inventories, and all marriages, births, and deaths.

1638The first documented shipment of enslaved Africans to the Massachusetts Bay Colony arrived in Boston on the Desire.People and Communities, African American History, Indigenous People's History

Other Events

The last sagamore of the Pawtucket, Masconomet, deeded a portion of the land between Labor in Vain (in Ipswich) and Chebacco Creek (in Essex), to John Winthrop, Jr. for £20.

A cut, or passage through the narrow part of the land from Ipswich Bay to Massachusetts Bay, was first discussed by the colonial government.

Cape Ann was incorporated as a "fishing plantation."

The General Court enacted a law that required records be kept of all wills, administrations, and inventories, and all marriages, births, and deaths.