The Mayflower Compact
For many, thinking about the Pilgrims makes one think of Thanksgiving – especially the famous feast.
Freedom from Want by Norman Rockwell
But even before that first dinner, before even the first hammer was put to building Plymouth Colony, there was a little ceremony (one whose importance thunders down to us today) that's worth studying.
I speak of the Mayflower Compact.
Let's sail back to 1620 for our own voyage of exploration.
They're coming to America
In 1492, we learn, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue and discovered the Americas for the Spanish.
This discovery touched off the largest land grab in European history, at least since Roman times. The word of the day was gold, gold in Central and South America.
In time, the English, French, and Dutch also got in on the act, wanting to set up a presence in North America. Visionaries, like Sir Walter Raleigh, saw the day when great cities would be here.
And so they came.
In 1620 one of the first groups would come to Virginia to set up a new colony, known today as the Pilgrims.
Embarkation by Robert Walter Weir (1844)
Delays and weather conditions meant this colony ended up in Massachusetts too late in the year to get to where had they intended. What were they to do? They had to make a stand where they were, but they had no legal claim to set up a town.
We're all in agreement
These were Englishmen who grew up in the Reformation, full of new ideals that promoted Liberty. Ideals such as all being equal before God, be they royalty or commoner. So right there, while still on the boat, they decided to take matters into their own hands; all agreed to come together, on their own, to form a new community and government.
This was the Mayflower Compact.
Painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris
So on November 21 (November 11 in the old calendar), 1620, while still on the ship, all the men of the new colony met to sign an agreement to this effect. Here are the words:
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 Officers, 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.
Because of the compact, all agreed to come together under a new government with its leaders. John Carver was elected as the first governor. To our modern eyes, there is nothing so extraordinary about all this.
But it was a rather radical idea in 1620.
Starting off on a good foot
Sadly, in the end, the crown had the last word. Seventy years later, the King said the town didn't have permission to exist, and it was closed down.
Still, the end of the Plymouth colony did mean the end of the ideals. Instead, it set the tone for how people viewed their community and government. We see echoes today in town hall meetings across the country. We see echoes in 1776 with the founding of the United States of America.
A legacy was started that day.
Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.
On the web
This is an excellent page going over the Mayflower Compact and its background all about it.
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