Agnès Delahaye, a professor of American civilization at Lumière University Lyon 2, wrote Aventuriers, Pèlerins, Puritains. Les Mythes Fondateurs de l'Amérique ("Adventurers, Pilgrims, Puritans. America's Founding Myths") to explore the legends passed down as history about the origins of the United States. In an interview with Le Monde, she traces the history of England's colonial project in America, in particular the journey of the Pilgrim Fathers, a group of Calvinists who were prevented by the English crown from freely practicing their religion and saw colonization as a chance to start afresh. Pejoratively referred to as "Puritans" at the time, they are now widely regarded as the US's Founding Fathers and still strongly influence the country's culture and politics.

When England decided to enter the race for colonies, Catholic Spain had been dominating the Atlantic for over a century. England's colonial arguments, which developed in the 1580s, were to position the country against the "black legend" of the Spanish conquest. The book A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, by Dominican missionary Bartolomé de las Casas (1484-1566), played a key role. The text, which recounts how soldiers tarnished their Christian duty, was published in English in 1583. It was followed by several English accounts of the Catholic conquistadors' violence against Native Americans.

In his Discourse of Western Planting (1584), English chaplain and author Richard Hakluyt (1552-1616) put English colonization in direct competition with the Catholic Spanish empire. Hakluyt believed that Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) embodied the "true religion" and that there was a need to head to America with an alternative colonization model.

In England, the official religion – which was not yet called "Anglicanism" – was a compromise between Protestant worship and the Catholic rite under the Crown's authority. Nevertheless, in colonial arguments, the fundamental opposition was between Catholics and Protestants. For Hakluyt, Protestantism was benevolent and convincing and was sure to win over the Native Americans. His text also suggested sending all non-conformists, Protestants who refused the Queen's authority, to the colonies. Thereby killing two birds with one stone.

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