How did the mayflower compact serve as an important step toward american democracy?

After an arduous journey across the Atlantic Ocean in 1620, the colonists we call the Pilgrims were faced with a monumental decision: What to do next? Blown off course by massive storms, the weary travelers missed their intended destination of northern Virginia – what is now New York – by a few hundred miles. 

More:First encounter: a nation created, a nation diminished

Landing in the wrong place presented a host of issues, including survival. They were perilously low on provisions, so resuming the journey was out of the question. But establishing a colony in what is now Plymouth and being so far away from the support of other settlements was an alarming prospect.  

The unintended landing in the northern-most point of Cape Cod – before they headed to modern-day Plymouth – also presented an opportunity. Some of the passengers aboard the Mayflower thought they were no longer bound to the original agreement for establishing a colony in the New World. As the Mayflower lay anchored in what is now Provincetown Harbor, they argued that the charter granted by King James I of England was no longer valid, hence they were free to do as they pleased.  

Text of Mayflower Compact (spelling and punctuation modernized):

In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are under-written, 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.

Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and 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 of another, covenant and combine our selves 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 hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the eleventh of November [New Style, November 21], 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. Anno Dom. 1620.

A total of 41 men signed the new covenant on Nov. 11, 1620. The document outlined how the community would govern itself while remaining loyal subjects of King James I: “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.”  

Originally titled “Agreement between the Settlers of New Plymouth,” this foundational document established the concept of self-governance while foreshadowing an independence movement more than 250 years later.

“It establishes the tradition of representative government in the Plymouth Colony and New England,” Curtin said. “It shows how a body of people could agree to elect representatives, create courts and promote the common good.”

The Mayflower Compact served the Pilgrims well. While King James would eventually grant them a new charter, this agreement stood as the framework for law and civil order until 1691, when the Plymouth Colony became part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It would set the bar for how early settlers would define freedom and liberty for future generations.

“Though elitist because only men of a certain wealth class could sign the Mayflower Compact, it is the earliest form of self-government by the colonists and the beginnings of our democracy,” Curtin said. “This short, dense document had a significant impact on our history.”

Editor’s Note: The story of the Pilgrims stepping off the Mayflower in 1620 underpins the narrative history of our nation’s founding. It is a story about disaffected English settlers motivated by religious freedom, and it is a story about indigenous people such as Squanto, who helped the settlers learn how to survive in a new environment. 

This month, as we commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower’s landing and as our country finds itself once again in the midst of a reckoning with our history, this series of stories reflects a less commonly told accounting of the founding of America and the impact it had on the indigenous people who had lived on the land for thousands of years. 

Using the model of restorative narrative —  an attempt through our journalism to give voice to those historically unheard —  we spoke with experts and historians and studied contemporaneous accounts of what happened in 1620 and the years that followed. We also engaged members of the Patuxet and Mashpee Wampanoag to write their own stories about their own rich histories, long overshadowed by the focus on the Pilgrims.

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