Who were the pilgrims?

Who were the pilgrims really, from documents that I read and documentary that I watched it was told that pilgrims were actually outcasts(whether they were muderers and/or thieves) or individuals with dieases were put on the Mayflower to get rid of them. I this true?

Who were the pilgrims?
They were neither murderers nor thieves. They were in a sense outcasts but their own choice had something to do with the matter. When the Protestant Reformation got under way in England in the 16th century, some--and they were "respectable" folk-- pressed for more rapid religious reform than the authorities wished to accept. And quite a few sought refuge in Holland, which they found a more hospitable country for people with their convictions. Eventually a group of them decided that they needed an entirely new land in which to practise their faith, and so arrived in Plymouth Rock, after which they proceeded to set up their strict government, which was a theocracy, the rule of the strongly religiously minded. And even though they had faced the brunt of persecution in England, they themselves did not hesitate to percecute Quakers and other dissidents who differed from them on religious and other questions. The English who came to Jamestown in Virginia at about the same as the Pilgrims were much more interested in worldly prosperity and therefore established business ventures.
Reply:Some of them came to North America for religious reasons. The rest came here in order to fill up empty space that was left on the ship.
Reply:they were the first Illegal aliens to come here in a boat

to the new world.
Reply:They fled England for religious reasons. Not that they were actively persecuted, but they believed that their faith was irreconcilable with that of the Church of England. First, they fled to Holland. However, Holland was so different from England that they feared the loss of their cultural identity, so they decided to travel to America which was wide open.



So no murderers, thieves or ill people as far as I know. Aren't you confusing the Pilgrims travel to America with the deportation of English criminals to Australia?