What is Mayflower Compact?
[[File:The Mayflower Compact 1620 cph.3g07155.jpg|right|thumb|''Signing the Mayflower Compact 1620'', a painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris 1899]] The '''Mayflower Compact''' was the first governing document of [[Plymouth Colony]]. It was drafted by the [[Pilgrims]] who crossed the [[Atlantic]] on the ''[[Mayflower (ship)|Mayflower]]'', looking for the freedom to belive in [[Christianity]] according to their own beliefs in God. It was signed on 11 November 1620 (OS) by 41 of the ship's more than one hundred passengers, where they first landed. According to the [[custom]]s of the time, the signers were all male.<ref>George Ernest Bowman, '' The Mayflower Compact and its signers'', (Boston: Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1920). Photocopies of the 1622, 1646 and 1669 versions of the document pp. 7-19.</ref> Of the 41 men who signed the Compact, 21 died during the first year in [[United States|United States of America]]. == List of men who signed == This is a list of names of the 41 men who signed the Compact.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://archive.org/stream/brewstergenealog190801jone/brewstergenealog190801jone_djvu.txt |title=Full text of 'The Brewster genealogy, 1566-1907; a record of the descendants of William Brewster of the 'Mayflower.' ruling elder of the Pilgrim church which founded Plymouth colony in 1620;' |first=Emma C. Brewster |last=Jones |work=archive.org |year=1908 |accessdate=19 June 2013| page = xxviii }}</ref> * [[John Carver]] * [[William Bradford (Mayflower passenger)|William Bradford]] * [[Edward Winslow]] * [[William Brewster]] * [[Isaac Allerton]] * [[Myles Standish]] * [[John Alden]] * [[John Turner (Mayflower passenger)|John Turner]] * [[Francis Eaton]] * [[James Chilton]] * [[John Crackston]] * [[John Billington]] * [[Moses Fletcher]] * John Goodman * [[Samuel Fuller]] * [[Christopher Martin]] * William Mullins * [[William White]] * [[Richard Warren]] * [[John Howland]] * [[Stephen Hopkins (Mayflower passenger)|Stephen Hopkins]] * [[Degory Priest]] * Thomas Wi