The Pilgrims

In 1620 a group of English Separatists came to settle on the Eastern Coast of North America.  These families were those who were opposed to the current Church of England, not believing that the Protestant Reformation had gone far enough in the church.  They desired to separate from the state church, with its head being the king, to form other churches--an act which was illegal.  The persecution they suffered for their theology led them to look for another homeland, which was originally Holland.  The pilgrims settled there, but could not make themselves at home.  One of their governors, William Bradford, describes their troubles this way:

"For these reformers to be thus constrained to leave their native soil, their lands and livings, and all their friends, was a great sacrifice, and was wondered at by many.  But to go to a country unknown to them, where they must learn a new language, and get their livings they knew not how, seemed an almost desparate adventure, and a misery worse than death.  Further, they were unacquainted with trade, which was the chief industry of their adopted country, having been used only to a plain country life and the innocent pursuit of farming."

These English pilgrims were mostly yeomen, who became part of the Protestant Reformation through the Wycliffe and Tyndale Bible translations.  Since they could not make a home in Holland, they began to look elsewhere, and much further abroad.  Since they were farmers, they were not used to a merchant-driven, city culture.  Even more worrying to them was the state of their young people.  Again Bradford states:

"But still more lamentable, and of all sorrows most heavy to be bourne, was that many of the children, influenced by these conditions, and the great licentiousness of the young people in the country, and the many temptations of the city, were led by evil example into dangerous courses, getting the reigns off their necks and leaving their parents."

These farmers' children were being led astray in the big city, so their parents decided to look to settle elsewhere, even turning to the wilderness of North America.