1628 CE - 1691 CE: Duration of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; after 1691 known as the Province of Massachusetts Bay.

1628 CE - 1630 CE: Establishment of the Massachusetts Bay Colony led by Puritans seeking to evangelize the native population of North America.

1630 CE: John Winthrop migrates to North America with 700 Puritan colonists to become governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1630 CE - 1649 CE: John Winthrop serves as governor or assistant governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1630 CE - 1636 CE: Dissent in Massachusetts Bay Colony silenced by banishing those who challenge authority.

1630 CE - 1633 CE: Thomas Morton sues Plymouth Colony and Massachusetts Bay Colony to have their charters revoked; legal briefs of the lawsuit become the drafts of his book New English Canaan.

1634 CE - 1636 CE: Roger Williams in conflict with magistrates of Massachusetts Bay Colony; banished in 1636 CE.

1636 CE - 1638 CE: The Pequot War; John Winthrop presides over policy concerning the massacre and enslavement of the Pequot tribe.

1638 CE: Anne Hutchinson banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony; founds Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

1675 CE - 1678 CE: King Philip's War in which thousands are killed as the Native Americans try to defend their land and way of life from increasing European colonization of the Americas.

1691 CE: Plymouth Colony is absorbed into the Massachusetts Bay Colony under the latter's new charter.