Mayflower Compact

The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was drafted by the separatist pilgrims who crossed the Atlantic aboard the Mayflower. It was signed on November 11, 1620 in what is now Provincetown Harbor near Cape Cod. Having settled at Plymouth (thus named by Captain John Smith earlier), the pilgrims recognized that their land was outside the chartered territory of the London Company. Thus, the Mayflower Compact was signed to establish a civil government based upon a majoritarian model and to proclaim the settlers' allegiance to the king. The compact was referred to by John Adams as the foundation of the Constitution of the United States, but he was speaking figuratively, not literally.

The settlers were well aware that earlier settlements in the New World had failed due to a lack of central leadership, and the Mayflower Compact was essentially a social contract in which the settlers agreed to abide by the rules of the government for the sake of their own survival. The government, in return, would derive its power from the consent of the governed.

The original document was lost, but the transcriptions in Mourt's Relation and William Bradford's journal Of Plymouth Plantation are in agreement and accepted as accurate. The Bradford transcription follows:

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The list of 41 male passengers who signed was supplied by Bradford's nephew Nathaniel Morton in his 1669 New England's Memorial. There are no surviving first-hand accounts of this information.

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1620 | History of Massachusetts | Pre-revolutionary history of the United States | United States historical documents

Mayflower-Vertrag | Mayflower Compact | Mayflower compact

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