Historic Sites in Bristol County

History of Bristol County

Bristol County, in southeastern Massachusetts, was incorporated in 1685 as part of Plymouth Colony, on the Wampanoag homeland. Its county seat is Taunton, and its history is built on water: the whaling port of New Bedford and the textile mills of Fall River.

In the mid-1800s New Bedford was the center of the American whaling industry. Frederick Douglass settled there after escaping slavery in 1838, and the old waterfront is now New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park. Fall River grew into a granite-mill city, and North Easton holds a group of buildings H.H. Richardson designed for the Ames shovel family, including the Ames Free Library and Oakes Ames Memorial Hall.