MAYFLOWER COMPACT

Mayflower Compact, 1620

Mayflower Compact, 1620

Introduction

The Mayflower Compact was the first governing article of Plymouth Colony. It was in writing by the colonists, subsequent simultaneously renowned to history as the Pilgrims, who traversed the Atlantic aboard the Mayflower. Almost half of the colonists were part of a separatist assembly seeking the flexibility to perform Christianity according to their own determination and not the will of the English Church.[citation needed] It was marked on November 11, 1620 (OS) by 41 of the ship's one century and two passengers, in what is now Provincetown Harbor beside Cape Cod. (Prince 2003)

The Mayflower was initially compelled for the mouth of the Hudson River, in land conceded in a patent from the Crown to the London Virginia Company. The decision was made rather than to land more distant north, in what is now Massachusetts. This motivated some of the "strangers" (colonists who were not constituents of the congregation of religious dissenters leading the expedition) to declare that since the town would not be made in the agreed-upon Virginia territory, they "would use their own liberty; for no one had power to command them...." To avert this, numerous of the other colonists determined to establish a government. The Mayflower Compact was founded simultaneously upon a majoritarian form (even though the signers were not in the majority) and the settlers' allegiance to the king. It was in essence a communal contract in which the settlers consented to pursue the compact's directions and regulations for the sake of survival. (Morton 2002)

Discussion

In November 1620, the Mayflower set down at Plymouth, entitled after the foremost dock city in Devon, England from which the Mayflower sailed. The settlers entitled their town "Plimoth" or "Plimouth", vintage English spellings of the name.

The initial article was lost, but the transcriptions in Mourt's Relation and William Bradford's periodical Of Plymouth Plantation are in agreement and acknowledged as accurate. Bradford's hand in writing manuscript is kept in a exceptional vault at the State Library of Massachusetts. Bradford's transcription is as follows:

In the title of God, Amen. We whose titles are underwritten, the trusted topics of our fear Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, etc.

Having attempted, for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to vegetation the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia, manage by these presents sombrely and mutually in the occurrence of God and one of another, Covenant and Combine us simultaneously into a Civil Body Politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the finishes aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and border such just and identical Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as will be considered most rendezvous and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we pledge all due submission and obedience. (Bradford 2005)

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