The band of Puritan emigres that left Southampton in 1620 to found a godly colony in Virginia (as the eastern seaboard of the North American continent was known then) carried with them the ideological seed-corn of a new nation. This is the story of their voyage, their settlement in New England and the influence they had on the forging of a nation|The band of Puritan emigres that left Southampton in 1620 to found a godly colony in Virginia (as the eastern seaboard of the North American continent was known then) carried with them the ideological seed-corn of a new nation. This is the story of their voyage, their settlement in New England and the influence they had on the forging of a nation.