by Rosetta Taylor

Created on: October 26, 2009   Last Updated: April 29, 2012

The Mayflower Compact was an agreement about government and law made between the Pilgrim settlers who arrived in Cape Cod in November 1620.

The Mayflower Pilgrims, unusually for their era, were a fairly democratic bunch. Their concept of democracy did not extend to allowing women to make anything beyond purely domestic decisions, but we will forgive them for that. Permitting women to vote would have been expecting too much of men in the early seventeenth century.

The Pilgrims' fledgling democracy originated with the Protestant Separatists who were the entrepreneurs and core element of the Mayflower expedition to the New World. They were not about to sacrifice their ideals when it came to resolving disagreements between themselves, whom they called 'saints', and the other passengers, the adventurers who were not making the journey for religious motives. These adventurers were referred to by the Separatists as 'strangers', but they were allowed to participate in the model for consensus and equality that was the Mayflower Compact.

A desire for self-governance in religious matters was one of the key aspirations that caused the Separatists to break away from the established Church of England in the first place. Having sacrificed their homes and futures in England, having overcome the disappointment of their hopes of establishing a better life in Holland, and finally having endured the dangers and hardships of a long journey to an unknown land, it is hardly surprising that they did not suddenly abandon the principle of democratic self-determination.

The original intention of the settlers was to form a colony at the mouth of the Hudson River, and they had a patent from the London Virginia Company entitling them to do so. However, when they were unable to land there and decided instead to disembark at Cape Cod, disagreements arose between the saints and the strangers about who had the right to make rules. So the adult male passengers held a meeting to debate their differences. They reached agreement on a short document which stated their belief in God and loyalty to King James I of England, and their promise to come together to form a government which would enact laws that they all undertook to obey. Forty-one men, both saints and strangers, signed the document. The Mayflower Compact was born.

It sounds like common sense to us now, simply because we are accustomed to living in a democratic society, but for the early seventeenth century it was a revolutionary idea.

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>