Immigrants In William Bradford's Of The Plymouth Plantation

America is founded in immigration. Aside from those of pure Native American descent, every one of its citizens has origin elsewhere. Their motivations for leaving their birth land are all but unknown, and are the core of what makes America. All of them can be rooted to an expression with many names; freedom, opportunity, and liberty. To illustrate, the protagonists following the telling of ‘Of the Plymouth Plantation’, William Bradford and his crew, came to America in search of each of these things. Bradford was a Puritan, and under the ruling of King James I, he was to be persecuted. As America was still a relatively new and fruitful idea in the minds of Europeans, he took an opportunity to escape King James and gain freedom to his religion
and those who shared it. As they landed, Bradford states, “Being thus arrived in a good harbor, and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element.” (Bradford, 8). This passage is a vivid insight as to how grateful the Pilgrims felt to have this newfound freedom, and understood the value of everything they had gone through to get there. Furthermore, escape is something that is - unfortunately - a major motivator.