[9] Based on U.S. Census demographics, election returns, and other criteria, the website Epodunk rates Northampton as the most politically liberal medium-size city (population 25,000–99,000) in the United States.

By 1606 an ongoing struggle between the Mahican and Iroquois confederacies led to direct attacks on the Pocumtuc by the Iroquoian Mohawk nation.

The area suffered a major smallpox epidemic in the 1630s following the arrival of Dutch traders in the Hudson Valley and New England settlers in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the previous two decades.

[2]: 7  While some settlers visited the land in the fall of 1653, they waited till early spring 1654 to arrive and establish a permanent settlement.

[18] This coincided with a souring of relations between the Wampanoag and the Massachusetts Bay colonists, eventually leading to the expanded Algonquian alliance, which took part in King Philip's War.

[22] A hamlet of Northampton, called Smith's Ferry, became separated from the rest of the city with the drawing of boundaries for Easthampton.

Because the village was separated by Mount Tom, the shortest path to from the downtown to this area was a road near the Connecticut River oxbow, which was frequently subject to flooding.

But the relapse was brief, and the Northampton revival, which had spread through the Connecticut River Valley and whose fame had reached England and Scotland, was followed in 1739–1740 by the Great Awakening, under the leadership of Edwards.

[28] In 1805 a crowd of 15,000 gathered in Northampton to watch the executions of two Irishmen convicted of murder: Dominic Daley, 34, and James Halligan, 27.

The crowd, composed largely of New England White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, lit bonfires and expressed virulently anti-Irish and anti-Catholic sentiments.

Called the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, the community believed that the rights of all people should be "equal without distinction of sex, color or condition, sect or religion".

Sojourner Truth, a former slave who became a national advocate for equality and justice, lived in this community until its dissolution (and later in a house on Park Street until 1857).

Well-known Smith alumnae include Sylvia Plath, Barbara Bush, Nancy Reagan, Tammy Baldwin, Gloria Steinem, Madeleine L'Engle, and Julia Child.

[39] During the mid-20th century, Northampton experienced several decades of economic decline, bottoming in the 1970s,[citation needed] related to the emergence of the Rust Belt phenomenon.

Though western Massachusetts lies outside of the Rust Belt geographically, the centrality of commerce and the arts to Northampton's economy left it economically vulnerable, in particular when compounded with the decline of Springfield's manufacturing sector, Holyoke's paper industry, and massive plant closures in the New York Capital District.

Since 2004, Northampton has been the site of Django in June, a week-long gypsy jazz music camp held annually on the campus of Smith College.

Northampton is bordered to the north by the towns of Hatfield and Williamsburg, to the west by Westhampton, to the east by Hadley (across the Connecticut River), and to the south by Easthampton.

Springfield, the Connecticut River Valley's most populous Massachusetts city, is located 19 miles (31 km) southeast of Northampton.

[67] Previous mayors have included future President of the United States Calvin Coolidge (1910–1911) and James "Big Jim" Cahillane, who served from 1954 to 1960.

Clarke is the oldest oral school for the deaf in the country, established in 1867 on Round Hill Road overlooking the Connecticut River Valley.

[74] After a new public unveiling in November 2007, NOM grew to over 200 active members in less than 18 months and had already attracted statewide and national attention in the community media landscape.

The limitation of one bridge across the Connecticut River (the only route to the nearby college town of Amherst) and a busy main street results in unsafe driving behavior and danger to pedestrians.

[76] The City of Northampton is attempting to solve this long-time problem by redesigning problematic intersections and installing traffic cameras.

[78] These trains serve intermediate and connecting points that include New York City, Boston, New Haven, and other destinations along the Northeast Corridor.

Additional and more frequent service is located a 25-minute drive south at Springfield Union Station, which also houses the Peter Pan bus terminal.

[79] In addition to passenger service, rail freight is offered by Pan Am Southern LLC via the Berkshire and Eastern Railroad, which is owned, in turn, by the Genesee & Wyoming.

The Franklin Regional Transit Authority operates a bus to Greenfield, Massachusetts, with seven round trips per day.

To the west, the Northampton Bikeway provides access to the city's Florence and Leeds neighborhoods, with a route through historic Look Park, which continues into Haydenville, where it ends.

While downtown, the bikeway runs alongside the train tracks, and provides an alternative route to King and Main Streets.

Preah Maha Ghosananda, a Cambodian Monk and the Supreme Patriarch of Cambodia died in Northampton on March 12, 2007.