The Pilgrim Fathers
History: KS3, topic 6.2.3
The Pilgrim Fathers
Another group of settlers who migrated from England to America were the Pilgrim Fathers, though they migrated for very different reasons.
Puritans
- The Pilgrim Fathers were a group of Puritans.
- Puritans were a group of Protestant Christians, but they did not believe in the same Protestantism as the people in England at that time. They were known as religious dissenters.
Persecution
- Throughout the 1500s and 1600s, Puritans like the Pilgrim Fathers were often persecuted or imprisoned in England because of their religious beliefs.
- They decided they would move to the recently-discovered America, where they would be able to set up their own colony and practise their religion freely.
The Mayflower
- In 1620, 102 passengers set sail from Plymouth for North America on a ship called The Mayflower.
- They named the new settlement ‘Plymouth’ after their hometown, and named the region in which they settled ‘New England’.
- The Plymouth Company was the second successful English settlement in North America (after Jamestown).
Test yourself on The Pilgrim Fathers
Why did the Pilgrim Fathers migrate to North America from England?
Which religion did the Puritans belong to?
In which year did the Pilgrim Fathers set sail on The Mayflower?