Escaping to America

Certain regions of England were ravaged by disease, unemployment, and poverty in the early 1600s. A shipbuilder in Southampton struggled financially but lived out his dream--to build one more ship that would travel to a new world and deliver nearly a hundred people, most of them peasants, to a land called America, a place where they could escape from the iron rule of the king and the dictates of the Church of England. After surviving a tortuous two-month journey across three thousand miles of ocean, the weary passengers finally stepped off the ship named Trinity, felt solid earth beneath their feet, and, after giving thanks to God for their safe arrival, set about establishing a system of self-governance and the building of a new settlement.