What can passenger lists tell us about who settled in the new world and where they settled

Everyone in America has come from some other place.  America has always been diverse and multi-cultural.  There are many families that have come for a better life.  Still to this day we are a country that is working towards a melting pot, religious freedom, and political tolerance.  Also many African immigrants were forced here and were enslaved for many years.  It will take many chapters in our course to get to the time when slavery was abolished and the Constitution and country began to try and reconstruct itself.  So we will use these passenger list to answer the historical question above.