<P> The Pilgrims or Pilgrim Fathers were early European settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present - day Plymouth , Massachusetts , United States . The Pilgrims ' leadership came from the religious congregations of Brownist separatist Puritans who had fled the volatile political environment in England for the relative calm and tolerance of 16th -- 17th century Holland in the Netherlands . The Pilgrims held Puritan Calvinist religious beliefs but , unlike other Puritans , they maintained that their congregations needed to be separated from the English state church . As a separatist group , they were also concerned that they might lose their English cultural identity if they remained in the Netherlands , so they arranged with English investors to establish a new colony in North America . The colony was established in 1620 and became the second successful English settlement in North America ( after the founding of Jamestown , Virginia in 1607 ) . The Pilgrims ' story became a central theme of the history and culture of the United States . </P>
<P> The Pilgrims or Pilgrim Fathers were early European settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present - day Plymouth , Massachusetts , United States . The Pilgrims ' leadership came from the religious congregations of Brownist separatist Puritans who had fled the volatile political environment in England for the relative calm and tolerance of 16th -- 17th century Holland in the Netherlands . The Pilgrims held Puritan Calvinist religious beliefs but , unlike other Puritans , they maintained that their congregations needed to be separated from the English state church . As a separatist group , they were also concerned that they might lose their English cultural identity if they remained in the Netherlands , so they arranged with English investors to establish a new colony in North America . The colony was established in 1620 and became the second successful English settlement in North America ( after the founding of Jamestown , Virginia in 1607 ) . The Pilgrims ' story became a central theme of the history and culture of the United States . </P>
when did the pilgrims come to north america
when did the pilgrims come to north america
16th -- 17th
16th -- 17th