The first successful colony in America was in Jamestown, Virginia, established 1607. When it was first founded, the colony contained only several hundred people. During the two hundred years that followed the population increased greatly, due in part to massive immigration from the Old World. By 1790 the colony housed a little under four million people. The high rate of immigration stemmed from a number of different motivators, including the peoples' hope for a better lifestyle than …showed first 75 words of 669 total…

…showed last 75 words of 669 total…colonial America. The new area presented a whole fresh realm of possibilities that England did not offer, and as a result, the unemployed, unhappy and/or restless went there in search of satisfaction and something new. Various literature written by educated men of the period promoted emigration and helped spread the word of these prospects. These reasons are what account for the large number of that people moved to colonial America in the seventeenth century.