Mayflower Compact: Laws To Govern The Pilgrims

When the Mayflower sailed over to the New World, on the boats were Puritans that were looking for a change in the way that their religion was practiced where the Chesapeake settlers came over for gold. Alongside the Puritans were the Separatists who

Introduction. The new boundaries and opportunities in the seventeenth century grew and challenged an idea of religious liberty. The lifestyle of the first colonists in the New England was heavily influenced by religion and church. Settlers considered that success of social life depends on the obedience to God’s will. The governor John Winthrop maintained and developed this idea. With a help of his Speech to the Massachusetts General Court in 1645, he summed up and explained an important idea of liberty. Winthrop did not only define a blessed way for a better life of the community but also clarified the role of citizens through the analogy of women’s position in the society. His concept of natural and moral liberty turned up to be suitable and clear for the settlers. With a help of well-built speech, Winthrop emphasized and explained correlation among society, authority, and God in the New World.

became a royal colony directly under his control. In contrast, The New Englanders took political interests in account in they way from England when they prepared the Mayflower Compact. The pact eventually led to the patriarchal society assembling to make their own laws in open-discussions in town meetings and general court. Unlike, the Chesapeake, the New Englanders were fortunate to have leaders like William Bradford to emerge as Governor and enforce God's biblical laws and Christian values to make the theocratic government successful.

Plymouth developed a strategic government molded from religion. In November 1620, the Plymouth colony arrived on the Mayflower with both pilgrims and non-pilgrims. This resulted in the Mayflower Compact,”they pledged themselves to unite into a civil body politic or

Document One, The Mayflower Compact of 1620, declares that the colonies should enact equal and justified laws. Continuing, this document declares that they speak for the general public, as they state what should take place if the colonies were to be unified. However, the propositions that are spoken of are to be what God desires. Another document that is similar to the first is the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut as they include God as a major role in their ideal government. However, this document is more faithful to their religion as one of their primary goals is to preserve the liberty and purity of Jesus. Additionally, they declare that the united government should dispose of any affairs of the people, instead of creating justified laws.

Because they were outside the jurisdiction of the company and concerned that new Pilgrims among them might cause problems, the leaders signed the Mayflower Compact, an agreement establishing a civil government under the sovereignty of King James I and creating the Plymouth Plantation colony. The structure of their society was based on God (Doc. D), which is the primitive reason why the sailed away from England and broke away from the Anglican Church to live by their own faith. Egalitarian customs were of great significance to New England and they were convinced that being unified would strengthen their faith and set an example for other communities. “We shall be that city upon the hill” (Doc. A).

In 1631, Roger Williams left England and arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, where he worked as a minister. However, his divergent views on religious freedom, and the rights of the Natives cause him to be banished from the colony. He then bought land from the Narragansett Natives, and created a new colony, which is now known as Providence, Rhode Island. Providence quickly became a home for Quakers, Jews, and other religious minorities. Although Williams was a minister, he was a strong supporter of religious freedom, and the separation of church and state. London’s religious intolerance was the leading reason he fled England. It is no surprise that once he saw the same system forming amongst the colonists he began to speak out against

The Mayflower contributed to a democratic society in the colonies by expressing equality and seriousness about the civil body politic. To begin, the colony claimed they will express equality. The Mayflower Compact states ". . . by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal laws . . . ".

The Mayflower Compact, written and signed in 1620 by forty-one white men aboard a ship called the Mayflower, provided basic laws for those who first arrived in America. Eventually the thirteen colonies expanded, which brought an economical benefit and expanded trade for Britain. However, in the mid-1700s, Britain pushed the colonists to their limits, imposing them with unfair taxes. As a result, in 1775, colonists revolted in the American Revolution. When the war ended, colonists gained their freedom, from Britain, with the signing of The Treaty of Paris (1783).

Written documents proved to be a major influence on the unification of the American colonies. Beginning as early as 1620, when the Separatist Pilgrims left the jurisdiction of the Church of England and escaped the “Dutchification” of their children in Holland to go to the New World, the establishment of self-government through the Mayflower Compact became present. It was heavily based off of the Magna Carta of 1215 which provided the foundation of the rule of law. Created and signed by the adult males onboard, the document stated that the Pilgrims would “combine [themselves] together into one civil body politic, for [their] better ordering and preservation” (Document 1). It went on to declare that they would abide by the newly formed laws and elect officers. This led to the creation of town meetings, places of direct democracy where men could work together with each other to create laws.

Mayflower: A story of courage,community,and war is about the lives of Pilgrims and the new lifestyle they are entering. The mayflower was the ship that transported the Pilgrims to the New World in 1620. Mr.Philbrick discusses the relationships amongst the England Pilgrims and their new neighbors the Native Americans. Upon meeting, there is already distrust between the two groups because they do not fully know each other. The pilgrims and native americans are now on a long voyage to accumulate trust,build a relationship, adapt to the new lifestyle.

This document attempted “... to temporarily establish that government until a more official one could be drawn up in England that would give them the right to self-govern themselves in New England”( MayflowerHistory.com) . While the Compact could be seen as a basis for the Constitution, in reality it was not.

In We Shall Remain after the Mayflower is a story of hope, courage, and survival. It happened most likely in the late summer of 1621 in North America. The pilgrims were completely alone in the New World, and would not have survived if it wasn’t for the Indians. Because of this it always made the Indians welcome into their “home.” The Wampanoag’s (Indians) lived in fear, while the Pilgrims felt alone. The Wampanoag’s brought five fresh killed deer, and they decided to have a feast. The Thanksgiving celebration at the Plymouth symbolized where there relationship stood, and the Pilgrims knew they were going to be able to survive because of the Wampanoag’s. The Wampanoag’s were to be known as the “people of the light.” Indian people shared this continent, it was

The creation the Mayflower compact was a very significant event in the history of the United States because of its example of a the first type of government in North America. The Mayflower Compact was draw up by a group of people known as Pilgrims in 1620. These people, mostly English, were in search of more religious freedom and better lives in the New World. 100 pilgrims began this journey in September of 1620 (History.com staff). Before, landing in New England, the Pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact. This legal document created “just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices” (History.com staff). This was the first example of a self-government in the New World. The founding fathers would later use many of the ideas in the Mayflower Compact in other governing documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. Through these examples, it is clear that the Mayflower Compact is significant to American history because it provided many ideas of self government that are still used in our governing documents today.

The term of Manifest destiny for the American people was to expand the land from sea to sea. This idea led them to gain more land to gain more liberty and freedom. Liberty of the nation was only liberty for the few. For the slaves, Native Americans, and the Free Blacks, they had little to no liberty with this idea of Manifest destiny. The nation was expanding and the American’s freedoms were expanding with it; the minorities were losing freedoms with the expanding of the rest of the nation.