ABSTRACT
The first English settlers arrived at Jamestown in 1607 intending to establish a permanent colony from which they could launch attacks on Spanish shipping, search for gold and silver, and produce goods to send back to England. Disease and crime increased, the economic and social fabric of England began to strain, and more people felt the need to leave England—colonists were almost always pushed by the situation in their home countries, rather than pulled by the possibilities at their destinations. In 1620, 121 Separatist Puritan men, women, and children set sail from England on the Mayflower, bound for North America. Led by William Bradford, who would later publish his recollections of the founding and settlement in Of Plymouth Plantation, they hoped to establish a religious colony free from the persecution they had suffered in England.
