In early September 1620, the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying Separatists (often called “Pilgrims”) and other passengers seeking a new start across the Atlantic. This voyage set an early pattern for later Puritan migration: religious goals mixed with economic backing and colonial planning.
After reaching Cape Cod and realizing they were outside their intended patent area, many adult male passengers signed the Mayflower Compact on November 11, 1620. The Compact was a short agreement to form a “civil body politic” and follow laws made for the colony’s good, helping prevent the settlement from breaking into rival factions.
In December 1620, the Mayflower’s passengers moved from Cape Cod to the harbor at Plymouth, where they began building a permanent settlement. The timing mattered: starting in winter increased hunger and disease, shaping the settlers’ early dependence on diplomacy and local knowledge.
On March 22, 1621, Plymouth leaders and the Wampanoag sachem Massasoit (Ousamequin) formed a defensive alliance and peace agreement. The treaty helped stabilize Plymouth’s survival prospects and became a key early example of how English settlements tried to formalize relations with Native nations—though power and enforcement were unequal.
In autumn 1621, Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag visitors shared a multi-day harvest celebration. Historians emphasize that only two primary sources describe it (Edward Winslow and William Bradford), and it was not originally treated as a major annual holiday at the time.
In 1629, King Charles I granted a charter to the Massachusetts Bay Company, giving it authority to colonize and govern a large area of New England. This legal framework was crucial for the later “Great Migration,” because it linked a religious project to a corporate-government structure that could fund and organize mass settlement.
On August 26, 1629, investors and leaders associated with the Massachusetts Bay Company signed the Cambridge Agreement. They pledged to move to New England if the colony’s government and charter were transferred there, a turning point that shifted control from England to the settlers themselves.
In 1630, a large, well-supplied migration wave reached Massachusetts Bay under the leadership of John Winthrop. This effort—often summarized as part of the “Great Migration”—brought enough people, livestock, and supplies to expand settlement quickly beyond a single struggling outpost.
After arrival, Massachusetts Bay leaders reshaped the company charter into a working framework for local government, with the General Court and elected officials playing central roles. The colony aimed to build a tightly regulated religious society, which attracted many Puritan families but also created pressure on dissenters.
In October 1635, Massachusetts Bay authorities banished minister Roger Williams for views including religious liberty and criticizing the colony’s land claims. In January 1636, he fled to avoid being sent back to England, highlighting how a migration launched for religious reasons could still enforce strict religious conformity once established.
From 1636 to 1638, the Antinomian Controversy divided the colony over authority, preaching, and the relationship between moral “law” and salvation. The conflict ended with punishments and banishments, showing that internal ideological disputes shaped where people lived and how New England’s religious map developed.
On March 7, 1638, Anne Hutchinson and other Massachusetts Bay dissenters helped form a new settlement at Portsmouth on Aquidneck Island (in present-day Rhode Island). Their compact created a new local political community, illustrating how religious disagreement in Massachusetts Bay pushed new migration streams within New England.
By 1640, major political change in England reduced the pressure that had driven many Puritans to leave. As England moved toward civil war, transatlantic migration to New England dropped sharply, closing the main window of the 1620–1640 Puritan migration era and leaving colonies to grow more through births and internal movement than fresh arrivals.
Puritan migration to New England (1620–1640)