Mayflower_Compact

Mayflower Compact The Mayflower Compact was signed on November 11, 1620 on board the vessel Mayflower. The Mayflower Compact was signed by forty-one men on board the ship. The person primarily responsible for this was William Bradford. He stated the two reasons for writing the Compact was that he was afraid of mutiny, and he thought they needed a form of self-government. This document was the first colonial agreement that formed a government by consent of the governed. The compact gave the settlers a plan to frame and enact laws for the general good of the organized settlement. Most of the Pilgrims were members of the Separatist congregation that had split from the Church of England. However, some were not, and these people sought independence from the Separatists. To prevent this, Separatist leaders wrote the Compact, which was formed after the covenant that had established their Separatist faith. Each male adult signed the document. The signers agreed to follow all “just and equal” laws that the settlers enacted and to be ruled by the will of majority. Plymouth Colony did not receive an English royal charter, and so the compact determined governmental authority in the colony until it became part of the mayflower, compact, people, colony, thought, authority, writing, time, set, separatist, laws, good, equal, signed, pilgrims, needed, just, government, general, frame, enact, standard, shall, settlers, says, rules, reasons, plymouth, ordinances, offices, mutiny, independence, gave, formed, following