The Mayflower Compact

When the Pilgrims arrived off the coast of America they faced many dangers and difficulties. They did not want to put themselves in further danger by quarreling with one another. Before landing at Plymouth, therefore, they wrote out an agreement. In this document they agreed to work together for the good of all. The agreement was signed by all forty-one men on board the Mayflower. It became known as the Mayflower Compact. In the Compact the Plymouth settlers agreed to set up a government - a "civil body politic" - to make "just and equal laws" for their new settlement. All of them, Pilgrims and Strangers alike, promised that they would obey these laws. In the difficult years which followed, the Mayflower Compact served the colonists well. It is remembered today as one of the first important documents in the history of democratic government in America.

Bryn O'Callaghan: An illustrated history of the USA; Longman, Harlow, 1990/1996, page 16