Welcome to the History of the Americans podcast episode 141.

I'm your host, Jack Heneman, and I'm recording this episode on January 31, 2024, in Austin, Texas.

We are telling the history of the lands now encompassed by the United States

from the beginning without intentional presentism. We believe there's dignity in our national story,

along with tragedy, triumph, brilliance, hypocrisy, magnificence, depravity, corruption, venality, inspiration, oppression,

oppression, genius, defeat, and glory. By 1640, English, Puritans were spreading all over New

England. They'd founded some 40 or 50 hamlets or

towns and had spread to Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Maine, and were headed toward Long Island,

Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket. We're not going to cover most of that in all but the most

cursory way. See the episode from a month or so back, an overview of the

European settlement of the Northeast before 1650 for more. We need to keep this ship moving.

And anyway, Eric Janus, creator of the other States of America History podcast does such a good job with it.

I'm not sure what I could add.

I'll put a link in the show notes to his podcast for those of you who can't get enough of

17th century America.

However, we are going to talk about the founding of Springfield, Massachusetts, because the man who founded

it was one of those entrepreneurial and independently minded early Americans who should be

remembered in our national story. William Pynchon, a successful and intrepid fur trader and

merchant who was also the author of the first book banned and actually burned in

Boston. My mother at least is old enough to remember when banned in Boston was a thing,

and publishers sought to put it on their books to sell more copies outside of Boston.

William Pension and his family came to Massachusetts in 1630 with a Winthrop fleet, a story familiar to longstanding and attentive listeners.

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