In 1620, a group of English families, known now as the Pilgrims, were carried from England to the New World on the Mayflower. When the Mayflower finally showed up in America on November 21, 1620, it had 102 guests and a team of around 30 on board, and was anchored off Cape Cod.

The Pilgrims, as opposed to their Puritan coworkers, chose to break away from the Church of England because of its Roman Catholic heritage and the church's hesitation to reform, requiring them to pray in private instead of in the church. In 1608, a group of English families left England for the Netherlands, where they could practice their faith without fear of persecution. As early as 1620, the Plymouth Group population had determined to cross the Atlantic to the New World, which they viewed as a "new Promised Land".

Due to hold-ups and challenges, the Pilgrims were only able to take one ship, the Mayflower, to reach America in early October. It was a pretty hard winter season when they showed up in November, and they were unprepared. Consequently, hardly half of the original Pilgrims made it through the first winter at Plymouth, Massachusetts. All of the settlers may have died if nearby Native tribes had not taught them how to collect food and other survival methods. On that first fall harvest, they gathered with Native Americans to celebrate what would end up being referred to as the first Thanksgiving in America.