Sailing of the mayflower 1620

In August 1620, a group that became known as the Pilgrim Fathers and that were attempting to escape religious persecution in England, sailed from Southampton for the New World. They landed at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts (although they had been aiming for Virginia). Often portrayed as the founders of the modern United States, they were far from the first British settlers on the North American continent. Indeed, only a year before at Jamestown, a colonial assembly had met - the first of its kind.