Abstract
Trying to determine the motives of the migrants to the new world is a difficult quest because their motivations were diverse and depended on the colonies they came from. The migrants could have been motivated by economical considerations and might have moved in search of a better life, and to be richer in North America by escaping hard times in their mother land. There were also religious considerations at play. Leaving for North America was seen a new start; as a way to build a society in more conformance with religious behavior. We may wonder if religious purposes were the determinant factors or not of immigration in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and if, as a consequence, religion lies at the heart of Early American identity. As New England was a good example of this paradox between economic and religious purposes in emigration we will focus on the Puritans to point out their motivations.
