On September 16, 1620, the Mayflower sailed from Plymouth,
England, bound for the Americas with 102 passengers. The
ship was headed for Virginia, where the colonists—half
religious dissenters and half entrepreneurs—had been
authorized to settle by the British crown. However, stormy
weather and navigational errors forced the Mayflower off
course, and on November 21 the “Pilgrims” reached
Massachusetts, where they founded the first permanent
European settlement in New England in late December.

Thirty-five of the Pilgrims were members of the radical
English Separatist Church, who traveled to America to
escape the jurisdiction of the Church of England, which
they found corrupt.