Wanderlust World Wanderlust World Pilgrims (1620), Puritans (1630s), Quakers, Huguenots, and others fled state churches and persecution to worship freely.
Land ownership (unthinkable in Europe), wages for labor, trade prospects, and escape from poverty/primogeniture drove the vast majority—indentured servants, yeomen, craftsmen.
Younger sons, debtors, dissidents, and dreamers saw the New World as a blank slate for glory, wealth, or a fresh start. Tales of gold, fertile valleys, and "cities of gold" fueled imagination.
These motives intertwined; a single migrant might seek all three. The resulting societies reflected this complex tapestry.