November 21, 1620
1620-11-21 12:00 UTC
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The Mayflower Compact is signed
Forty-one men aboard a ship off Cape Cod agree to govern themselves by majority consent.Source ↗
What happened in this minute
Blown north of their patent, the Mayflower passengers had no legal authority where they had landed. The compact, signed in the ship's cabin, bound the signers into a civil body politic with power to make laws for the general good.
It was a practical document written to prevent mutiny, not a constitution, and it excluded women, servants and the Wampanoag people whose land the colony occupied.
It is remembered because of what followed: the colony governed itself by written agreement rather than royal grant, a pattern later invoked in American political argument.
Questions and answers
- What was the Mayflower Compact?
- A short agreement signed aboard the Mayflower in November 1620, in which the male passengers agreed to form a civil body politic and obey laws made for the general good.
- Why was it needed?
- The ship landed outside the territory covered by its patent, leaving the settlers with no legal authority for self-government.
- Is the date old or new style?
- The signing is dated 11 November 1620 in the Julian calendar then used in England, which corresponds to 21 November in the Gregorian calendar used here.