The American Reader: Words That Moved a Nation

We whose names are underwritten ... doe by these presents solemnly & mutualy in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant & combine our selves togeather into a civill body politick.

The settling of America began with an idea. The idea was that the citizens of a society could join freely and agree to govern themselves by making laws for the common good.

On November 11, 1620, after sixty-six days at sea, the sailing ship Mayflower approached land. On board were 102 passengers. Their destination was the area at the mouth of the Hudson River, but because of rough seas they missed their goal and anchored in what is now Provincetown Harbor off Cape Cod. Since it was late autumn, they decided to make their landing there rather than to sail on. And since they were no longer in the territory for which they had a patent, they signed a covenant before they landed in order to establish a basis for self-government by which all of them were bound.

About a third of the passengers were members of an English separatist congregation that had earlier fled to Leyden, the Netherlands, in search of religious freedom. The entire group of English colonists was later called the Pilgrims. The colonists had negotiated an agreement with the Virginia Company of London that gave them the right to locate wherever they chose in that company's vast holdings and to govern themselves.

Forty-one of the male passengers signed the covenant aboard ship. In what was later known as the Mayflower Compact, the signers pledged to create a body politic that would be based on the consent of the governed and ruled by law.And they further agreed to submit to the laws framed by the new body politic.

The compact was signed by every head of a family, every adult bachelor, and most of the hired manservants aboard the Mayflower, It was signed both by separatists and non-separatists. Women were not asked to sign, since they did not have political rights.

On the day after Christmas, the 102 settlers disembarked at what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts. Those who had signed the compact became the governing body of the Plymouth colony, with the power to elect officers, pass laws, and admit new voting members. The covenant entered into on that November day on a ship at anchor in the wilderness harbor established the basis for self-government and the rule of law in the new land.

In the name of God Amen. We whose names are underwriten, the loyall subjects of our dread soveraigne Lord King James by the grace of God, of great Britaine, Franc, & Ireland king, defender of the faith, &c.

Haveing undertaken, for the glorie of God, and advancements of the Christian faith and honour of our king & countrie, a voyage to plant the first colonie in the Northerne parts of Virginia, doe by these presents solemnly & mutualy in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant & combine our selves togeather into a civill body politick; for our better ordering, & preservation & furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by vertue hearof to enacte, constitute, and frame shuch just & equall lawes, ordinances, Acts, constitutions, & offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meete & convenient for the generall good of the Colonie: unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.

In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cap-Codd the11of November, in the year the raigne of our soveraigne Lord King James of England, France & Ireland, the eighteenth and of Scotland the fiftie fourth. An°: Dom. 1620.

The Landing

They had now no freinds to wellcome them, nor inns to entertaine or refresh their weatherbeaten bodys, no houses or much less townes to repaire too, to seeke for succoure.

William Bradford (1590-1657) was among the 102 Pilgrims who sailed on the Mayflower, his History of Plimouth Plantation provides the most complete account of the formative years of the settlement, including the circumstances of the Mayflower Compact. Bradford was elected governor of Plymouth Colony in 1621 and was reelected to that office almost every year from 1622 to 1656. He began writing the History of Plimouth Plantation in 1630 and completed it in 165 1. His description of the hard life facing the Pilgrims when they first arrived on shore is a classic of American literature.

Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the periles and miseries therof, againe to set their feete on the firme and stable earth, their proper elemente. And no marvell if they were thus joyefull, seeing wise Seneca was so affected with sailing a few miles on the coast of his owne Italy; as he affirmed, that he had rather remaine twentie years on his way by land, then pass by sea to any place in a short time; so tedious and dreadfull was the same unto him.

But hear I cannot but stay and make a pause, and stand half amased at this poore peoples presente condition; and so I thinke Will the reader too, when he well considers the same. Being thus passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before in their preparation (as may be remembred by that which wente before), they had now no freinds to wellcome them, nor inns to entertaine or refresh their weatherbeaten bodys, no houses or much less townes to repaire too, to seeke for succoure. It is recorded in scripture as a mercie to the apostle and his shipwraked company, that the barbarians shewed them no smale kindnes in refreshing them, but these savage barbarians, when they mette with them, (as after will appeare) were readier to fill their sids full of arrows then otherwise. And for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of that cuntrie know them to be sharp and violent, and subjecte to cruell and feirce stormes, deangerous to travill to known places, much more to serch an unknown coast.