During the Colonial Era, many people immigrated to America; arriving on crowded, often disease-ridden passenger and freight ships. They were from a variety of countries, and they came for a variety of reasons. The chief reasons for immigration were political asylum, religious persecution, and economic opportunity. During the early 1600s, many English peasants were evicted, in favor of sheep cultivation, due to increasing demand for wool. Many peasants left England searching for new pastures. During the 1630s, the excessively powerful King Charles I of England’s unsatisfied men revolted under Oliver Cromwell. Over time, many of these revolutionaries settled in Jamestown, Virginia. Germans fled to the New World to escape the oppressive rule of
