When the Mayflower anchored at Cape Cod in November 1620, the settlers realized they were outside the land covered by their original patent. They needed a way to keep order while they waited for a new legal agreement, so the male passengers wrote and signed the Mayflower Compact on November 11, 1620. They pledged to form a "civil body politick" for their "better ordering and preservation" and agreed to create "just and equal laws" for the good of the whole colony.

The term civil body politick is a key part of the document. The settlers used it because it was a common legal phrase for an organized community acting together under lawful authority, and it helped define their new union as a civil government instead of just a religious group. The Compact was not merely a promise to stand by one another. It was a clear statement that they were a political community capable of making laws together.

The real strength of the Compact is how simple and practical it was. It was not a long, complicated constitution, but a short agreement that bound the signers to obey the government and legal system they would establish in Plymouth Colony. In a time of deep uncertainty — before they had houses ashore or a secure legal footing — the Compact gave them a shared promise of order and survival.

Facsimile of the Mayflower Compact
Facsimile image of the Mayflower Compact tradition.

Full Text of the Compact

In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, 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 ourselves together into a civil body politick, 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 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. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod the 11th of November, 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 Domini 1620.

The Signers

John Carver; William Bradford; Edward Winslow; William Brewster; Isaac Allerton; Myles Standish; John Alden; Samuel Fuller; Christopher Martin; William Mullins; William White; Richard Warren; John Howland; Stephen Hopkins; Edward Tilley; John Tilley; Francis Cooke; Thomas Rogers; Thomas Tinker; John Rigsdale; Edward Fuller; John Turner; Francis Eaton; James Chilton; John Craxton; John Billington; Joses Fletcher; John Goodman; Digory Priest; Thomas Williams; Gilbert Winslow; Edmund Margesson; Peter Browne; Richard Britteridge; George Soule; Richard Clarke; Richard Gardiner; John Allerton; Thomas English; Edward Doty; Edward Leister.

Textual Note

The original Mayflower Compact is lost, but the text survives in three early versions. These copies are associated with Edward Winslow's Mourt's Relation (1622), William Bradford's Of Plimoth Plantation (1646), and Nathaniel Morton's 1669 account. Morton's version is especially important because it includes the names of the 41 men who may have signed the document.

Selected Sources

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