The Pilgrims' vision was twofold. On the one hand they hoped to carve out a home for themselves and their children where they could worship God in their own way instead of having their beliefs dictated to them by the King. On the other hand, the Pilgrims
sincerely wished to bring the hope of Christianity to the native people. The
Mayflower Compact explained that all that they had sacrificed, all they had suffered, and all they had risked was for
“the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian Faith.”
These goals caused the Pilgrims to make many developments and advancements in the fields of government, education, religious freedom, human rights, and political liberty. When it came to relations with the surrounding native American tribes, the Pilgrim’s Christian foundation enabled them to forge the longest lasting peace treaty in early American history and successfully begin evangelism efforts. Taking the Bible as the guide book to every major facet of life—a map to creation authored by the Creator—the Pilgrims instituted the free market, the institutional independence of the church from the dictates of the government, stronger protections for private property, and public education. In 1641 they also passed possibly the first anti-slavery law on the continent making “man-stealing” a capital offence.
However, the Pilgrims were not the only people to colonize the New World. As Tocqueville noted, America contains, “two principal offshoots that, up to the present, have grown without being entirely confused—one in the South, the other in the North.” In 1607 a group of merchants and traders had occupied land given to them by the King of England founding the colony of Jamestown, Virginia. Having different motivations, desires, and hopes, the colonists of Jamestown acted dramatically differently from the later Pilgrims. Instead of coming for religious freedom, the Jamestown colonists largely came as agents of the King for the purpose of trade. Thus, slavery was introduced early into Jamestown and protected by their legal codes. Their relations with the native tribes was markedly more contentious, tragic, and warlike. The lack of a Biblical structure and spiritual motivations created a vastly different environment.
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From the voyage to the First Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims suffered from innumerable hardships which steadily killed many of the men, women, and children. So dire were their circumstances and so devastating the results that when they eventually celebrated the first successful harvest with their Native allies 
