Primary Source

Please read the Mayflower Compact and answer these questions.

According to the Compact, what was the purpose of the voyage?

Where were the voyagers intending to land? Where did they end up?

What is the reason the signers combine into “a civil body politic”?

What do the signers promise? When was the compact signed? What was the gender of the signers?

Discuss the questions you have been given. We will answer them as a class as well.

What may have happened if the Mayflower’s passengers had not created this agreement?

Is the Mayflower Compact a democratic document?

Why did people aboard the Mayflower only have men sign the Compact?

Why do you think the settlers of Jamestown didn’t create a similar document?

Imagine being stranded on a desert island. How might a document like the Mayflower Compact help your group survive?