Mayflower+Compact

Mayflower Compact

Background information: The pilgrims aboard the Mayflower were sailing to Virginia but got blown off course so instead formed their colony in the Cape Cod area, known as the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The area the pilgrims settled on was outside of the area charted by the two joint stock companies. Because of this, the settlers wanted to have a document stating their independence and their form of government. The Mayflower Compact served that purpose.



Actual Text:

//Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith, and the honor 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 politic; for our better ordering, and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to 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 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, 1620.// || Contributions to Democracy: The Mayflower Compact contributed immensly to the idea of a government of the people, for the people. It revolved around the idea of a government that was based on the belief of majority rule. It also focused on the good of the community versus the good of the individual. The document stressed the need to put the greater good before our own personal desires.
 * = //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, etc.://



By Ellen Sellers, Dan Brown, and Allison Kaczmarski

(Zimmerman), Anne Marie London. "Mayflower Compact, The (Informational Paper)." //Learning to Give//. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Sept. 2011. []

"Avalon Project - Mayflower Compact : 1620." //Avalon Project - Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy//. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Sept. 2011. <[]>