The Rules of the Mayflower Compact

_Elsa_

‘While they intended to form a government for their new colony, the Pilgrims and others aboard the Mayflower were not declaring their independence: The Mayflower Compact (though the Pilgrims never called it that) began with a clear statement of loyalty to King James of England, along with a commitment to God and to Christianity.

In settling the first colony in the “Northern parts of Virginia,” the document continued, the Pilgrims and the other Mayflower passengers would “covenant and combine our selves together into a civil body politick.” As part of this united body, they pledged to make and abide by the same “laws, ordinances, Acts, constitutions, and offices” in order to further “the general good of the Colony: unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.”

The signatures of colonists who crossed the Atlantic on the Mayflower, on the Mayflower Compact, the first constitution written in America. Included are William Brewster, William Bradford, Myles Standish and Edward Winslow. 

The Mayflower Compact was clearly a religious document, in that it held that the people derived their right of self-government from God. But it did not mention a specific church, or method of worship, leaving it open for acceptance by both the Separatist Pilgrims, and the “strangers,” many of whom remained loyal to the Church of England.

Finally, as the first written constitution in the New World, the Mayflower Compact laid the foundations for two other revolutionary documents: the Declaration of Independence, which stated that governments derive their powers “from the consent of the governed,” and the Constitution.

In 1802, speaking at Plymouth, the future president John Quincy Adams underscored the lasting importance of the agreement signed aboard the Mayflower more than 180 years earlier, calling it “perhaps the only instance, in human history, of that positive, original social compact, which speculative philosophers have imagined as the only legitimate source of government.” (Source)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXB8HUBXSRY

Growing up in Canada Elsa never learned any of this American history. She is so happy that she found this National Day and can’t wait to get this story started. She continues googling.

Let’s continue - Why Did the Pilgrims Come to America?

Start at the beginning – Tiffi co-authors the Mayflower Story