ABOUT

Mattapan  is a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 36,480, with the majority of its population coming from out of the United States.

History
Mattapan was originally a part of Dorchester up until the nineteenth century, when it was annexed onto its own neighborhood. Dorchester was settled by English settlers in 1630. The Neponsett Tribe originally settled Mattapan, which was a tribe of the Massachusetts confederation of Native Americans. The name Mattapan came from tis Native American tribe and it means "a good place to be" or "a good place to sit". The belief behind why the Neponsett Tribe chose the name Mattapan is that the river runs through it and the area was so full of nature that it was a beautiful place to just sit back and take it all in. At the turn of the 20th century, the population of Mattapan was largely Caucasian, but starting in the late 1960s, blockbusting intentionally designed to destabilize the neighborhood drove many long-term residents out of Mattapan. In the 1980s a significant number of Haitians immigrated to Mattapan leading to the current demographic population. Mattapan because of the Haitian population has become an important center for the Haitian cultural, social, and political life in the entire state of Massachusetts. In 2015, Mattapan has a large population of not just Haitians but also African Americans, Jamaicans, and other Caribbean immigrants.