european immigrants was forced to settle in colonial america?

The correct option is: "convicts"

A penal colony is a colony used as a penitentiary in which prisoners carry out forced labor. The penitentiary regime was always very hard and often included severe physical punishment. Thus, although the sentence was not life imprisonment, many died of hunger, illness, lack of medical assistance and overwork, or even died in attempts to escape.

In the colonial penal system, prisoners were deported to faraway places to dissuade them from returning after serving their sentence. Penal colonies were often located on border lands, especially in inhospitable parts, where unpaid work benefited the metropolis when there was not enough immigration or when forced laborers were more profitable. In fact, sometimes people were condemned for insignificant reasons with the intention of generating cheap labor.

puritans hope this