Massachusetts

On Friday I toured around various parts of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

This the famous Plymouth Rock, which Pilgrims landed on in 1620.

A replica of the Mayflower, called the Mayflower II. The Mayflower is the ship the pilgrims fleeing religious persecution in England came over on.

These are the tombs of 2nd President John Adams and his beloved wife Abigail at the Church of the Presidents in Quincy. The church is so named, as the only church with two US Presidents buried there. Unlikely to occur again, unless George HW and George W Bush are buried together – but we probably won’t know that for 40 years or so.

The US flag has 15 stars and 15 stripes reflecting the number of states of the union when Adams was President.

John Quincy Adams was the 6th President and is next to his parents. His US flag has 24 stars reflecting the new size of the union. The number of stripes was back to the original 13 by then, as they realised too many stripes was not going to work.

This is the house John Quincy Adams was born in.

And next door to it, is the house his father John Adams was born in.

This house is known as Peacefield, also known as Old Home, and was the main home of the Adams Family. It was built in 1731.

And I also popped into Salem, home of the witch trials. In total 19 people were executed for witchcraft – 14 women and five men. In addition one man was crushed to death by heavy stones, but this was as part of his interrogation!