The New England the Middle and the Southern colonies each had their own motives for moving to North America. Each of them had both religious and economical reasons, and each their own separate ideas about freedom.
Religion was a major motive for people to move to the Americas. The New England colonies were made up of puritans. They wanted to purify the English church and do away with Catholic practices. They believed that this would make a utopia, a place of ideal perfection. On the other hand there were also people who were still loyal to the English church. These Catholics settled in the South. They came mainly for the economics. Finally there were the Quakers who settled in the middle colonies. They believed in religious freedom.
The second most important reason that people migrated to these colonies was because of economics. The New England colonies had poor rocky soil so they couldn't do much farming.
But they were on the coast and took advantage of it. They took part in trade, fishing, whaling, and Naval stores. The Middle colonies on the other hand did mainly farming. They had rich fertile plains that were ideal for farming. They made their living off of cash crops. They were referred to as the "bread basket" because of their many different kinds of grains. The south did a little of both. They traded and grew cash crops. They eventually were known for the beginning of the slave trade. They grew and traded tobacco, rice, sugar and eventually cotton.
The final reason the people settled in these colonies was freedoms. The New England colonies believed that women had no rights. The Middle colonies on the other hand believed that men and women were equals. The Southern colonies believed that women had few rights.