# data[].attributes.body
At first, the Massachusetts Bay Company wanted to trade in the colony, but soon they shifted to religion. Before leaving for America, Winthrop pushed the Cambridge Agreement. The agreement said once they reached America, they would buy out the company, take over the charter, and govern the colony independently. Massachusetts Bay Company became the only colonizing experiment that was not controlled by governors in England. Instead, the people of the colony elected Winthrop as governor.

# data[].attributes.body
The first Europeans to exploit Massachusetts' natural resources were fishermen who arrived in the mid-sixteenth century. They soon established a flourishing fur trade with Native Americans in the region, primarily five main Algonquian tribes.

# data[].attributes.body
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was considered a refuge for Puritans from the corrupt church in England. They were led by John Winthrop, and together Puritans to established a religious paradise for Christians who lived strictly by God.

# data[].attributes.body
The independence the colony had caused more and more tension with the English. From 1664 and 1676, royal commissions investigated the colony and gave negative information about their independence. The charter was withdrawn in 1684, and the MA Bay Company was dissolved. The colony still functioned without legal status until another charter was created in 1691. This destroyed close union of church and state. The freemen of the colony had the right to vote by certain property stands instead of religious requirement. This charter merged the Plymouth Colony and Maine with the MA Bay Colony.

# data[].attributes.body
The colony grew quick, and the Great Migration brought even more people. It brought thousands of Puritans to live in communities of faith. This colony had nearly forty towns by 1650, each with requirements of a church and a rigorous standard of membership. Most of the town politics revolved around the church.

# data[].attributes.body
Nearly a thousand people had settled here in the colony by 1630. They established a religiously oriented government. This included a governor, assistants, and court of stockholders that oversaw the laws of the colony. The stockholders managed to limit voting rights to those of their own religious faith. While the colony expanded, this system became a government of deputies that represented the different towns in a bicameral court in 1644. However, voting rights and government positions remained privileges for church members only.

# data[].attributes.body
Town governments were agreements enjoining neighbors to live in harmony. Each town had freedom from interference by the central government. As long as none of their activities violated the laws of the colony, inhabitants could make whatever political arrangements they could agree on.

# data[].attributes.body
The English granted a royal charter to the MA Bay Company the rights to colonize and trade in the area between the Merrimack and Charles Rivers in 1629. What was unique about this charter was that it gave the company the power to establish whatever government they wanted for their colony, with the authority only being to the king. This meant that they could establish their company government as their colonial government.