The Mayflower Compact
There were over one-hundred people with belongings and possibly small farm animals, for sixty-six days in 1620 on a ship called The Mayflower. The Mayflower Compact was a document signed on the Mayflower on November 21, 1620. It was the first framework of government written and enacted in The United States of America. The Mayflower's destination was the Hudson River but due to the rough seas, it was steered towards Cape Cod. The passengers were no longer within jurisdiction of the charter granted to them in England from the Virginia Company because of the change of course. Pilgrim leaders drafted the Mayflower Compact before going ashore. The document was about two-hundred words long. It bounded its signers into a body politic for the purpose of forming a government and pledged them to abide by any laws and regulations that would later be established. The document was drawn up in response to "mutinous speeches" that had come about because the Pilgrims were going to settle in Northern Virginia, but the decision was made after arrival to instead settle in New England. Since there wasn't any government in place, some people felt they had no legal obligation to remain within the colony and supply their labor. The Mayflower Compact wanted to temporarily establish that