This is Angela Odell and you are listening to real cool history for kids.

A podcast show featuring history told from a distinctly biblical world view perspective.

Welcome to an adventure.

Welcome to episode 63 of real cool history for kids.

This episode is for Josiah, Elizabeth, and Isabelle Kappel, who wanted to hear about the Salem

Witch Trials. Hey guys, this one's for you. In the late fall of 1620, a ship full of weary pilgrims

came ashore on the east coast of what eventually would become the United States of America.

These travelers, cold, sick, and exhausted from their long harrowing voyage from England across

the Great Atlantic Ocean, had no idea what hardship lay ahead of them. Why had they risked their lives

to come here to this wild and unsettled land? These pilgrims were yearning for religious

freedoms that couldn't find in their European home country. The Church of England was controlled

by the king or queen on the throne. After years of persecution for their religious beliefs,

this band of brave men and women had decided to set forth on this adventure.

After a devastating first year in America, the pilgrims had lost almost half of their people

to sickness, and it was only by the grace and mercy of God that any of them survived it all.

The years passed, and the pilgrims' small village became a bustling, thriving community.

Settlements were popping up all along the east coast of North America,

as more and more settlers came to this plentiful new world. These settlers were not all like the

pilgrims who had come to the new world for religious reasons. Some of them came to get away from

an oppressive government in their home country, some wanted the opportunity to make a better living

for themselves, while others were really mostly just thrill-seekers looking for an adventure.

The one thing they had in common was their loyalty to England, because as colonies of the British

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