Mayflower compact

American  

noun

1. 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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Mayflower Compact Cultural  

1. 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.

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The Mayflower Compact was the first written constitution in North America.

Example Sentences

See also Immigration, Royal province Mayflower compact, 4 Mercantile theory, 69 Merchants.

From History of the United States by Beard, Charles A. (Charles Austin)

"In the name of God, Amen," are the opening words of the Mayflower compact, and that document ends with these words, "For the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith."

From The Call of the World or, Every Man's Supreme Opportunity by Doughty, W. E.

Mayflower, compact signed in her cabin, 35; object of her voyage, 143.

From The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster With an Essay on Daniel Webster as a Master of English Style by Webster, Daniel