Mayflower compact


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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How to use Mayflower compact in a sentence

  • There was no Mayflower compact with the bushmen when Englishmen decided to live with the natives in Australia.

    Society | Henry Kalloch Rowe
  • One of the chief paintings represents the signing of the memorable "Mayflower compact."

  • Upon this great monument are also representations of the landing of the Pilgrims, 16 their names, and the "Mayflower compact."

Cultural definitions for Mayflower Compact

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.

Notes for Mayflower Compact

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

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.