People-People

Native Americans were the first to settle in the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts about 4,600 years ago. They established settlements in what later became Stockbridge, Great Barrington and Sheffield.

The first Europeans to arrive in the Berkshires were the Dutch. They set up farms on the eastern slope of Mt Washington in 1692. They acquired a lot of land from the Mohican Indians by the 1705 Patents of Westenhook. Westenhook applied to a tract of land lying west of today’s Sheffield and Great Barrington. The Mohicans resettled around Stockbridge and came to be known as the Stockbridge Indians.

The first English settlers arrived in Sheffield in 1725-26. They found six Dutch families already settled there. The English settlers purchased more land from the Mohican Indians and began to establish the first towns in the Berkshires. In 1733 Sheffield became an incorporated town. Pittsfield was founded in 1761. The Quakers arrived in Adams in 1767, followed by the Shakers who set up their most important settlement at Hancock, near Pittsfield.

African Americans entered the Berkshires as slaves brought in from other places. One of them was Elizabeth Freeman who came from New York. She was purchased by John Ashley of Sheffield as a six-month old baby and worked in his household for forty years. Then, one day, following an altercation with her mistress she sued for her freedom which the county court at Sheffield upheld in 1783. Elizabeth Freeman thus became the first African American to be emancipated.

As discontent against colonial rule spread, rebellion brewed in the Berkshires too. The first open resistance to British rule in America took place on August 18, 1774, when a rebellious mob chased Royal judges out of Great Barrington.

After the Revolutionary war, the Berkshires, just like every other region in the United States, got involved in building up the new nation. The Industrial Revolution gathered steam. Academic institutions were established. Villages became large market towns and urban centers. When Civil War broke out in 1861 several Berkshire residents participated in it.

The influx of the railroad, and later the highways, brought more people to the Berkshires. More towns and cities were established and the region progressed economically and socially. Industry was soon attracted to Pittsfield and the city experienced a burst of manufacturing activity in the 1890s. Its population peaked in the 1950s at about 58,000 and it emerged as the social, political and commercial center of the Berkshires.

In the 20th century, many more people from as far away as Florida and Texas were attracted to settle down in the Berkshires or spend their summers in the area. This added to the eclectic mix of people in the region. These migrants included famous artists, writers and millionaires.

Today the Berkshires is home to many people of Hispanic and Asian backgrounds too.

Total Population: 134,953