Essay About Mayflower Compact And Notion Of A Social Contract

The Mayflower Compact
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The Mayflower Compact was signed on November 11, 1620 in what is now
Provincetown Harbor near Cape Cod. The Mayflower Compact was the first governing
document of Plymouth Colony. It was drafted by the Pilgrims who crossed the
Atlantic aboard the Mayflower, seeking religious freedom. The settlers who came to
the New World brought with them a great deal of ideas and beliefs. Many of them,
such as the Puritans, came to America so they could live in “stricter accord” with
their beliefs.
After landing in Plymouth, many of the Pilgrims aboard realized that they were in
land uncharted by the London Company. For this reason the Mayflower Compact was
written and adopted, based upon a “majoritarian model and the settlers allegiance to
the king.” The Pilgrims knew that the English settlement founded a few years earlier
at Jamestown, Virginia had practically fallen because of the lack of a strong
government and leadership. They agreed they would not make that mistake, and
stated that once a government had been established, they would obey the
commands of its leaders. “The government, in return, would derive its power from
the consent of the Governed.”
While making this compact, the Pilgrims drew upon two strong traditions. One was
the notion of a social contract, the other was the belief in covenants. Puritans
believed that covenants existed not only between God and man, but also between
man and man. The Pilgrims used covenants in establishing their congregations in
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the Old World. The Mayflower Compact is such a covenant in that the settlers agreed
to form a government and be bound by its rules. The Compact is often described as
Americas first constitution, but it is not a Constitution. Its importance lies in the
belief that government is a form of covenant, and that for the government to be
legitimate, it must derive from the consent of the governed.
The original Mayflower Compact has never been found, and is assumed destroyed.
If it survived through the years, it was likely to be a victim of Revolutionary War
looting,