New Hampshire Summary

The state that would “live free or die,” as its motto proclaims, was the first of the 13 colonies to adopt a provisional state constitution and government, thus breaking with Great Britain. It later cast the decisive vote to ratify the US Constitution. Today, although home to about 1.2 million people, it ranks 41st in population, yet it wields enormous political influence nationally every four years as the first state to hold a presidential primary election.

New Hampshire covers only 9,283 square miles but has the highest and most rugged mountains in the Northeast. It also has one of the country’s largest freshwater lakes. Its rounded mountains, boulders, and numerous lakes are reminders of the region’s glacial history.

The land was inhabited by Algonquian-speaking native groups when Europeans first arrived in the seventeenth century, but their populations were decimated when European diseases, to which the Native Americans had no resistance, spread rapidly through New England. English Captain Martin Pring made the first recorded visit in 1603; the first settlements followed 20 years later.

The state has short, humid summers and long, cold winters. It is bordered on the north by Quebec, on the east by Maine and the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Massachusetts, and on the west by the Connecticut River, which flows south from its headwaters in northern New Hampshire to form the 250-mile boundary with Vermont. Its 13-mile coastline includes the estuary of the Piscataqua River, at Portsmouth, ensuring that seafaring, trade, and shipbuilding have all played important roles in the state’s development.

Lumber, shipbuilding, fishing, agriculture, and maritime trade were mainstays during the eighteenth century. Now technology and light industries — and the absence of state sales and income taxes — bolster its economy, while tourists are drawn to its outdoor recreational opportunities, attractive covered bridges, and appealing fall colors.