Home, sweet home!
Some of the first colonists who arrived in the New World in 1620 on the Mayflower were hoping to start a new life where they could practice religious freedom.  Others were emigrants who hoped to find treasure and eventually go back to England.  William Bradford, who was the governor of Plymouth Colony, called them Pilgrims.  

The Mayflower Compact was the first form of government to be established in the New World.  The first winter was very difficult for the Pilgrims.  The cold and food shortages caused about half of them to die.  By 1627, the colony was established and able to survive.