History of English Immigration to America: British Ancestry
According to the 1980 United States Census, 26.34% of the total population of the United States, consisting of over 49 million Americans, claimed English ancestry. This statistics place these Americans as the largest ethnic group in the United States who identify with each other by factors based on common ancestral, cultural and social experience. The majority of these people simply describe themselves as "American", the title that was so fiercely fought for in the American War of Independence.History of English Immigration to America: The Reasons for English Immigration to America
Why did people want to leave England and why did they want to move to America? The reasons for the English Immigration to America was at first based on obtaining profit from the new lands but quickly changed as people decided to move from England to escape religious and political prosecution. The prospect of a new life and owning some land was also a major reason for the English immigration to America.History of English Immigration to America in the 1500's: Roanoke Island
English Immigration to America began in the 1500's. Sir Walter Raleigh (1554-1618) led expeditions to North America in order to found new settlements and find gold and named Virginia in honor of Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen. In 1585 Sir Walter Raleigh sent several shiploads of colonists to the 'New World', who settled on Roanoke Island. It was here that Elinor White Dare gave birth to a daughter, Virginia Dare, the first child born of English parents in America. The first immigrants mysteriously disappeared and Roanoke was given the nickname of "the Lost Colony".History of English Immigration to America in the 1600's: The Pilgrims and the Puritans
English Immigration to America in the 1600's recommenced in 1607 with the establishment of the Jamestown settlement in the Virginia Colony. The Virginia Colony consisted of Anglican and Baptist immigrants led by John Smith and John Rolfe. The Plymouth Colony was then founded in 1620 by the Mayflower Pilgrims. The term 'Pilgrim Fathers' is the name given to early settlers of the Plymouth Colony. The Pilgrims, were part of an English church congregation of religious separatists led by John Robinson, William Brewster and William Bradford under the military command of Myles Standish. It was the Pilgrims who celebrated the First Thanksgiving to give thanks for the arrival of fresh supplies and new colonists. In 1630 another religious group left England in search of religious freedom. This group was called the Puritans who represented the next wave of English Immigration to America. The leader of the Puritans was John Winthrop who led a fleet of 11 vessels and 700 passengers to the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
