Why do people leave their homeland? Some people are forced out, other people leave willingly with a smile on their face. Perhaps they were being discriminated against, perhaps they just wanted to make a little bit more cash. The people of the Plymouth colony were not allowed to practice their religion in England so they came to the New World. The people of Jamestown heard about the riches in the New World and high-tailed it to the New World to get rich. Both of these colonies are very similar, they both immigrated to the new world, and they both had terrible death-rates in their colonies. Despite these similarities, Jamestown and Plymouth both had unique governmental and motivational circumstances.
The motivation of the Jamestown settlers to come over to the New World was all basically the same, for money. Officially, the role of the Jamestown settlement was to spread Christianity, but that is is not what happened. The Jamestown settlement was funded by the Virginia Company, a for-profit company hoping that they could make a large profit. The original hope was to find lots of gold and
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Originally, the government of Jamestown was privately owned and governed by The Virginia Company, but in April of 1619 it was decided that there would be a legislative assembly created in Jamestown (“House of Burgesses”). This became The House of Burgesses. The House of Burgesses had control over the finances, militia, and other important parts of Jamestown (Lowry Daniel “classroom notes”). Initially the House of Burgesses did not do well because the death-rate was so high in Jamestown and all the members died before any work could be completed. The House would meet on a yearly basis and would vote on local problems (“House of Burgesses”). Any white man that owned a specific amount of property was eligible to vote for representatives, known as Burgesses (“House of