Mayflower compact
noun
an agreement to establish a government, entered into by the Pilgrims in the cabin of the Mayflower on November 11, 1620.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Mayflower Compact
An agreement reached by the Pilgrims on the ship the Mayflower in 1620, just before they landed at Plymouth Rock. The Mayflower Compact bound them to live in a civil society according to their own laws. It remained the fundamental law of their colony of Plymouth until the colony was absorbed into Massachusetts in the late seventeenth century.
Note
The Mayflower Compact was the first written constitution in North America.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
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