View source for Mayflower Compact

{{Short description|First governing document of Plymouth Colony}}
{{Pp-vandalism|small=yes}}
{{Infobox document
| document_name        = Mayflower Compact
| image                = The Mayflower Compact 1620 cph.3g07155.jpg
| image_size           = 300px
| image_alt            = ''Signing the Mayflower Compact 1620'', a painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris 1899
| caption              = ''Signing the Mayflower Compact 1620'', an 1899 painting by [[Jean Leon Gerome Ferris]]
| orig_lang_code       = 
| title_orig           = Agreement Between the Settlers of New Plymouth
| date_created         = {{Old Style Date|November 21|3=November 11}}, 1620
| date_presented       = 
| date_ratified        = 
| date_effective       = 
| date_repeal          = First repealed in [[Dominion of New England|1686]], reinstated in 1689, and repealed again in [[Massachusetts Charter|1691]] 
| location_of_document = 
| commissioned         = 
| writer               = 
| signers              = [[Mayflower Compact signatories|List of signatories]]
| media_type           = 
| subject              = 
| purpose              = 
| wikisource           = Mayflower Compact 
}}

The '''Mayflower Compact''', originally titled '''Agreement Between the Settlers of New Plymouth''', was the first governing document of  [[Plymouth Colony]]. It was written by the men aboard the ''[[Mayflower]],'' consisting of [[Separatist Puritans]], adventurers, and tradesmen. Although the agreement contained a pledge of loyalty to the [[King James I of England|King]], the Puritans and other [[English Dissenters|Protestant Separatists]] were dissatisfied with the [[Millenary Petition|state of the Church of England]], the limited extent of the [[English Reformation]] and reluctance of [[King James I of England]] to enforce further reform.

The Mayflower Compact was signed aboard ship on {{Old Style Date|November 21|3=November 11}}, 1620.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Bennett|first=William J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-hl0Fc6AQUkC&pg=PA460|title=The American Patriot's Almanac: Daily Readings on America|last2=Cribb|first2=John T. E.|date=2013|publisher=Thomas Nelson|isbn=978-1595553751|pages=460|language=en}}</ref> Signing the covenant were 41 of the ship's 101 passengers;<ref name="Prince1736" /><ref name="passengers" /> the ''Mayflower'' was anchored in [[Provincetown Harbor]] within the hook at the northern tip of [[Cape Cod]].<ref name="Young1841" />

==History==
The [[Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)|Pilgrims]] had originally hoped to reach America in early October using two ships, but delays and complications meant they could use only one, the ''Mayflower''. Their intended destination had been the [[Colony of Virginia]], with the journey financed by the [[Company of Merchant Adventurers of London]]. Storms forced them to anchor at the hook of [[Cape Cod]] in [[Massachusetts]], however, as it was unwise to continue with provisions running short. This inspired some of the non-Puritan passengers (whom the Puritans referred to as "Strangers") to proclaim that they "would use their own liberty; for none had power to command them" since they would not be settling in the agreed-upon Virginia territory.<ref name="bradford1620"/> To prevent this, the Pilgrims determined to establish their own government, while still affirming their allegiance to the Crown of England. Thus, the Mayflower Compact was based simultaneously upon a [[majoritarianism|majoritarian]] model and the settlers' allegiance to the king. It was in essence a social contract in which the settlers consented to follow the community's rules and regulations for the sake of order and survival.{{sfn|Young|1841|p=120}}

Similar arguments had been unsuccessfully made by the shipwrecked passengers of the ''[[Sea Venture]]'', a similar, earlier group bound for the Colony of Virginia, and specifically by one [[Stephen Hopkins (pilgrim)|Stephen Hopkins]],<ref name=Kelly>{{cite web |last1=Kelly |first1=Joseph |title=How the Survivor of a 1609 Shipwreck Brought Democracy to America |url=https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2019/06/24/how-the-survivor-of-a-1609-shipwreck-brought-democracy-to-america/ideas/essay/icsquare.org/2019/06/24/how-the-survivor-of-a-1609-shipwreck-brought-democracy-to-america/ideas/essay/ |website=Zocalo Public Square |access-date=19 February 2022 |date=24 June 2019 }}</ref> who had, as a result, been convicted of mutiny and sentenced to death, but was pardoned,<ref name=Johnson>{{cite book |first=Caleb |last=Johnson |title=The Mayflower and Her Passengers |location=Indiana |publisher=Xlibris |year=2006}}</ref>{{Self-published inline|certain=yes|date=December 2017}}{{rp|162–163}} and is thought to be the Stephen Hopkins aboard the ''Mayflower''<ref name=Kelly/> and among the Compact signatories.

The Pilgrims had lived for some years in [[Leiden]], a city in the [[Dutch Republic]]. Historian [[Nathaniel Philbrick]] states, "Just as a spiritual covenant had marked the beginning of their congregation in Leiden, a civil covenant would provide the basis for a secular government in America."<ref>{{cite book |first=Nathaniel |last=Philbrick |year=2006 |title=Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War |publisher=Penguin |location=New York |isbn=978-0143111979 |page=41}}</ref>

== Text ==
[[File:Mayflower Compact Bradford.jpg|right|thumb|Bradford's transcription of the Compact]]

The original document has been lost,<ref name="Bowman" /> but three versions exist from the 17th century: printed in ''[[Mourt's Relation]]'' (1622),<ref name="Mourt1622" /><ref name="Mourt1865" /> which was reprinted in ''Purchas his Pilgrimes'' (1625);<ref name=Purchas1906/> hand-written by [[William Bradford (1590-1657)|William Bradford]] in his journal ''[[Of Plimoth Plantation]]'' (1646);<ref name="Bradford1901" /> and printed by Bradford's nephew [[Nathaniel Morton]] in ''New-Englands Memorial'' (1669).<ref name="Bowman" /> The three versions differ slightly in wording and significantly in spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.<ref name="Mourt1865" /> William Bradford wrote the first part of ''Mourt's Relation'', including its version of the compact, so he wrote two of the three versions. The wording of those two versions is quite similar, unlike that of Morton. Bradford's handwritten manuscript is kept in a vault at the State Library of Massachusetts.<ref name="vault" />

The text as presented in modern sources is as follows:
{{blockquote|'''IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN'''. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King ''James'', by the Grace of God, of ''Great Britain'', ''France'', and ''Ireland'', King, ''Defender of the Faith'', &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of ''Virginia''; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience. '''IN WITNESS''' whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at ''Cape-Cod'' the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King ''James'', of ''England'', ''France'', and ''Ireland'', the eighteenth, and of ''Scotland'' the fifty-fourth, ''Anno Domini''; 1620.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Federal and State Constitutions Colonial Charters, and Other Organic Laws of the States, Territories, and Colonies Now or Heretofore Forming the United States of America |date=June 30, 1906 |editor-first=Francis Newton |editor-last=Thorpe |location=Washington, DC |publisher=Government Printing Office}} Cited in {{cite web|url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/mayflower.asp|title=Mayflower Compact: 1620. Agreement Between the Settlers at New Plymouth: 1620|website=Avalon Project |publisher=Yale Law School|access-date=18 February 2018}}</ref>}}

The document was signed on {{Old Style Date|November 21|3=November 11}}.<ref name=":0" />

== Signers ==
{{Further|Mayflower Compact signatories}}
[[File:MayflowerCompactBasrelief.jpg|thumb|[[Signing the Mayflower Compact|Signing of the Mayflower Compact]] Bas-relief by [[Cyrus Edwin Dallin|Cyrus Dallin]] at the [[Pilgrim Monument]]  Provincetown, Massachusetts]]
A list of 41 male passengers who signed the document was supplied by Bradford's nephew [[Nathaniel Morton]] in his 1669 ''New England's Memorial''. [[Thomas Prince (historian)|Thomas Prince]] first numbered the names in his 1736 ''A Chronological History of New-England in the form of Annals''.<ref name=Prince1736/> The original document has been lost, so Morton is the sole source for the signers. He probably had access to the original document, but he could not have known the actual order in which it was signed simply by inspecting it. Morton's arrangement of names might not have been the arrangement on the original document, and the names on the original may not have been arranged in any orderly fashion. Prince's numbers are based solely on Morton, as he himself stated.<ref name=Bowman/>

Morton's list of names was unnumbered and untitled in all six editions (1669–1855), although their order changed with successive editions. In his original 1669 edition, the names were placed on two successive pages forming six short columns, three per page.<ref name=Bowman/> In subsequent editions, these six short columns were combined into three long columns on a single page in two different ways, producing two different orders in unnumbered lists of signers. The second (1721) and third (1772) editions changed the order of the first edition by combining the first and fourth columns into the first long column, and similarly for the other columns. The fifth (1826) and sixth (1855) editions returned the names to their original first edition order by combining the first and second short columns into the first long column, and similarly for the other columns. Prince numbered the names in their original 1669 Morton order. He added titles (Mr. or Capt.) to 11 names that were given those titles by William Bradford in the list of passengers at the end of his manuscript.<ref name=Prince1736/><ref name=Bradford1901/>

{{columns list|colwidth=20em|
#Mr. [[John Carver (Mayflower passenger)|John Carver]]
#[[William Bradford (Plymouth governor)|William Bradford]]
#Mr. [[Edward Winslow (Mayflower passenger)|Edward Winslow]]
#Mr. [[William Brewster (Mayflower passenger)|William Brewster]]
#Mr. [[Isaac Allerton]]
#Capt. [[Myles Standish]]
#[[John Alden]]
#Mr. [[Samuel Fuller (Mayflower physician)|Samuel Fuller]]
#Mr. [[Christopher Martin (Mayflower passenger)|Christopher Martin]]
#Mr. [[William Mullins (Mayflower passenger)|William Mullins]]
#Mr. [[William White (Mayflower passenger)|William White]]
#Mr. [[Richard Warren]]
#[[John Howland]]
#Mr. [[Stephen Hopkins (Mayflower passenger)|Stephen Hopkins]]
#[[Edward Tilley]]
#[[John Tilley (Mayflower passenger)|John Tilley]]
#[[Francis Cooke]]
#[[Thomas Rogers (Mayflower passenger)|Thomas Rogers]]
#[[Thomas Tinker]]
#John Rigsdale
#[[Edward Fuller (Mayflower)|Edward Fuller]]
#John Turner
#[[Francis Eaton (Mayflower passenger)|Francis Eaton]]
#[[James Chilton]]
#[[John Crackstone]]
#[[John Billington]]
#[[Moses Fletcher]]
#John Goodman
#[[Degory Priest]]
#[[Thomas Williams (Mayflower)|Thomas Williams]]
#Gilbert Winslow
#Edmund Margeson
#[[Peter Browne (Mayflower passenger)|Peter Browne]]
#Richard Britteridge
#[[George Soule (Mayflower passenger)|George Soule]]
#Richard Clarke
#Richard Gardiner
#[[John Allerton]]
#Thomas English
#[[Edward Doty]]
#Edward Leister
}}

== Legacy ==
[[File:Signing of Mayflower Compact, 1920 Issue.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Commemoration of Mayflower Compact signing, 1920 issue]]
On November 23, 1920, at a commemoration ceremony for the 300th anniversary of the ''Mayflower'' landing, then [[Governor of Massachusetts|Massachusetts governor]] [[Calvin Coolidge]], who became the 30th [[President of the United States|U.S. president]] a few years later, said the following about the Mayflower Compact:

{{Poem quote|The compact which they signed was an event of the greatest importance. It was the foundation of liberty based on law and order, and that tradition has been steadily upheld. They drew up a form of government which has been designated as the first real constitution of modern times. It was democratic, an acknowledgment of liberty under law and order and the giving to each person the right to participate in the government, while they promised to be obedient to the laws.

But the really wonderful thing was that they had the power and strength of character to abide by it and live by it from that day to this. Some governments are better than others. But any form of government is better than anarchy, and any attempt to tear down government is an attempt to wreck civilization.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Descendants Hail Spirit of Pilgrims |url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045774/1920-11-23/ed-1/?sp=6&r=-0.053,0.552,0.95,0.466,0 |work=New York Herald |page=6 |date=1920-11-23 |access-date=2020-11-19}}</ref>}}

==See also==
* [[Fundamental Orders of Connecticut]] (1638)
* [[Instrument of Government]] (1653)
* [[List of Mayflower passengers|List of ''Mayflower'' passengers]]
* [[List of Mayflower passengers who died in the winter of 1620–1621|List of ''Mayflower'' passengers who died in the winter of 1620–1621]]
* ''[[Mayflower]]''
* [[Mayflower Compact signatories]]
* [[Mayflower passengers who died at sea November/December 1620|''Mayflower'' passengers who died at sea November/December 1620]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em|refs=
<ref name="Young1841">{{cite book
|last=Young
|first=Alexander
|title=Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers of the Colony of Plymouth from 1602 to 1625
|publisher=C. C. Little and J. Brown
|year=1841
|pages=[https://archive.org/details/chroniclespilgr05youngoog/page/n141 117]–124
|url=https://archive.org/details/chroniclespilgr05youngoog
}}</ref>

<ref name="passengers">Bradford listed 104 passengers, including: William Button, a servant of Samuel Fuller who died five days before landfall; Oceanus Hopkins, born at sea; Perigrine White, born two weeks after landfall; and seamen William Trevor and someone named Ely, both hired for one year. If the two seamen and Perigrine White are ignored (William Button's death is offset by Oceanus Hopkins' birth), one is left with the "101 who sail'd from Plimouth in England, and just as many arriv'd in Cape Cod Harbour" as listed by Prince.</ref>

<ref name="bradford1620">{{cite book
|chapter-url=http://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/Ted_Hildebrandt/NEReligiousHistory/Bradford-Plimoth/Bradford-PlymouthPlantation.pdf
|last=Bradford
|first=William
|title=Bradford's History "Of Plimoth Plantation"
|editor=Hildebrandt, Ted
|year=1898
|publisher=Wright & Potter
|location=Boston
|chapter=Book 2, Anno 1620
|access-date=2006-06-01
}}</ref>

<ref name="Mourt1622">William Bradford, Edward Winslow (printer G. Mourt [George Morton], [http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_id=xri:eebo:image:10930 ''Relation or Iournall of the beginning and proceedings of the English Plantation setled at Plimoth in New England''], Early English Books Online, p.b4</ref>

<ref name="Mourt1865">Henry Martyn Dexter, [G. Mourt = George Morton], [https://books.google.com/books?id=mQB1lN0cIpUC&pg=PA6 ''Mourt's Relation or Journal of the Plantation at Plymouth''], 1865, pp. 6–7, a reprint using original typeface, paragraphs, punctuation, spelling and embellishments, but not pagination.</ref>

<ref name="Purchas1906">Samuel Purchas, [https://archive.org/details/hakluytusposthu29purcgoog/page/n337 <!-- pg=313 --> ''Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrimes''], Vol. XIX (Glasgow:James Maclehose, 1906) 313–314. Reprint of 1625 edition except that letters i, j, u, and v are used according to modern custom, contracted letters extended, printers' errors corrected, and repaginated from original four volumes to twenty volumes (I.xxvi).</ref>

<ref name="Bradford1901">William Bradford, [https://books.google.com/books?id=xD0WAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA110 ''Bradford's History "Of Plimoth Plantation" from the original manuscript''] (Boston: 1901) page 110 (photocopy of manuscript page follows). Passengers listed on pp. 530–540. No annotations. Official printing by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. This printing of the compact is identical to the 1856 version by the Massachusetts Historical Society. Spelling and contractions follow manuscript except for modern usage of u and v. Capitalization and punctuation differ from manuscript. A faithful transcription is at [http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/PrimarySources/MayflowerCompact.php Mayflower Compact (1620)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090303154554/http://mayflowerhistory.com/PrimarySources/MayflowerCompact.php |date=2009-03-03 }}.</ref>

<ref name="Bowman">George Ernest Bowman, [https://archive.org/download/mayflowercompact00bow/mayflowercompact00bow.pdf ''The Mayflower Compact and its signers''] (Boston: Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1920). Photocopies of the 1622, 1646 and 1669 versions of the document.</ref>

<ref name="Prince1736">Thomas Prince, [https://archive.org/details/chronologicalhis01prin ''A chronological history of New England in the form of annals''] (1736) Chronology 73, 84–86. Internet Archive.</ref>

<ref name="vault">[http://cmars.cwmars.org/search~S54?/thistory+of+plimoth+plantation/thistory+of+plimoth+plantation/1%2C2%2C2%2CB/frameset&FF=thistory+of+plimoth+plantation+manuscript+1630+1650&1%2C1%2C/indexsort=- History of Plimoth Plantation: manuscript, 1630–1650. State Library of Massachusetts Catalog]{{Dead link|date=December 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikisource}}
*[https://www.history.com/topics/colonial-america/mayflower-compact "Mayflower Compact"] at [[History (American TV network)|History Channel]]

{{Mayflower passengers and related topics}}
{{Pre-American Revolution documents}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1620 in the Thirteen Colonies]]
[[Category:American political philosophy literature]]
[[Category:History of the Thirteen Colonies]]
[[Category:Mayflower]]
[[Category:Plymouth Colony]]
[[Category:Political charters]]
[[Category:Provincetown, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Thirteen Colonies documents]]
[[Category:United States documents]]
[[Category:1620 works]]