The Mayflower Ship and the Mayflower Compact

While the passengers of the Mayflower were not the first European colonists to arrive in present-day America, they're among the most well-known today, largely due to their perseverance in the face of both internal and external threats to their survival. One of their accomplishments was the creation of the Mayflower Compact, a document that established the first system of colonial self-government. This agreement laid the groundwork for the ideas and principles that would eventually become foundational parts of American democracy.

The Journey of the Mayflower

In July of 1620, 102 passengers, 41 of them Pilgrims, set sail for the mouth of the Hudson River, an area that is part of New York City today but at the time was the northern edge of the colony of Virginia. They had a contract with the Virginia Company, a British trading company that oversaw colonization efforts: The Mayflower's passengers had permission to set up a settlement, which would then operate under British law and produce commodities to be shipped back to Europe, like timber and fur. The Mayflower was accompanied by a second ship, the Speedwell. However, the Speedwell began leaking, forcing the expedition to turn back and return to England twice. Ultimately, the Speedwell had to be left behind, and the Mayflower set off alone on Sept. 6, 1620.

Life aboard the Mayflower was far from easy, especially considering that the vessel was built to be a cargo ship. There were no comfortable cabins for the passengers; instead, they lived in the cargo hold, a cold, damp, dark, low-ceilinged space in the bottom decks of the ship. The only decent quarters were reserved for the crew, around two dozen sailors serving under captain Christopher Jones, who lived on the upper deck.

A lack of nice living spaces wasn't the only thing that made the journey unpleasant for the passengers of the Mayflower. The ship was beset by storms as it made its way across the Atlantic Ocean. In one particularly bad storm, one of the largest support beams of the ship cracked; the passengers and crew scrambled to repair it with a large iron screw, which they used to secure the beam in its proper place. In another storm, a boy named John Howland was swept overboard. Thankfully, he managed to grab one of the ship's ropes as he fell, and he was pulled back up out of the ocean onto the boat.

Living in poorly ventilated spaces and sailing across rough seas, the passengers became ill frequently. However, only one person died on the voyage. He was a member of the crew who had treated the passengers with contempt and taunted them when they were seasick. When he died, the passengers said that it was because God had punished him for his cruelty.

The number of people who were on the boat when it finished its journey remained the same, however. That's because one baby was born at sea. The mother's name was Elizabeth Hopkins, and she named her infant son Oceanus.

The Threat of Anarchy and the Mayflower Compact

In November of 1620, the Mayflower arrived on the East Coast. However, the stormy weather had blown the ship off course, and they ended up landing at Cape Cod. The passengers immediately realized that they had a problem: They were outside of the Virginia colony, meaning that the conditions of their contract with the Virginia Company wouldn't apply here. In fact, outside of the company's jurisdiction, they had no legal framework under which to establish a colony and no one to govern them. Some of the passengers threatened to go their own way, splintering the group. But if everyone didn't work together, their odds of survival were not good, especially with winter approaching.

The solution was a document that became known as the Mayflower Compact. On Nov. 11, 41 of the 50 adult male passengers signed this brief agreement, which established that the new colonists would remain loyal to Britain but would work together to create their own laws to govern themselves. Under the Mayflower Compact, they elected a mayor, chose a place for their settlement, and got to work cutting down trees and erecting buildings, still living on the ship as they labored to build their new settlement.

The winter took a brutal toll on the colonists. The lack of proper shelter led many to fall ill, and food supplies dwindled. More than half of the colonists died of starvation, disease, or exposure to the cold. But united by the Mayflower Compact, the rest of them soldiered on, finally moving off of the Mayflower and into their new homes in March of 1621. As they settled in, the Wampanoag tribe made contact with the colonists and offered to help them. The natives gave the colonists food and taught them how to fish, hunt, and grow crops successfully. From there, the settlement flourished.

Additional Resources

• The Mayflower Compact
• 11 Lesser-Known Facts About the Mayflower and Thanksgiving
• Text of the Mayflower Compact
• The Pilgrims and the Mayflower Compact
• What Is the Mayflower, and Why Is it Celebrated 400 Years Later?
• The Pilgrims and the Mayflower: History and Facts
• The Wampanoag Thanksgiving Story
• Harsh Truths Amid the Mayflower Myths
• Not All Mayflower Passengers Were There for Religious Reasons
• The Pilgrims' Patents