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Article — Studying the Pilgrims and the First Written Constitution in the New World: The Mayflower Compact
The How To’s of Studying the “Mayflower Compact”
Poetry — “The Pilgrim” by John Bunyan
Studying the Pilgrims and the First Written Constitution in the New World: The Mayflower Compact
The greatness of the story of the Pilgrims and the "Mayflower Compact" rivals the stories of the American Revolution, the Civil War, and World War II. The Pilgrim story, how they lived their lives according to their religious convictions, the toll it took on each family personally, their adventure to the wilderness of America, and how they created the first written constitution in the New World reveals the best of the human spirit. With sheer grit and determination based on religious conviction, the Pilgrims lived the lives they were called to live. In the process, this small group of unassuming folks changed the course of human history.
When mentioned in history books and articles, the Pilgrim story is quickly lumped in with that of the Puritans, who arrived in America in 1630, and the Pilgrim story is treated as though Plymouth Colony were swallowed up into the Massachusetts Bay colony and the account of their heroic odyssey is often not recorded. I have always wondered why their amazing story is not often told. I think it is possible that people who were not controversial, who lived good lives based on love, devotion to God and to each other, and who actually acted out their convictions, are convicting to others. The fact that such a group of normal, uneducated, religious farmers wrote the first constitution in the New World that profoundly influenced the development of the colonial government in Massachusetts, and later the development of the United States Constitution, does not fall in line with the preferred controversial colonial stories that came out of Massachusetts Bay years later. An edition of American Pageant, the book of choice for most AP U.S. classes in America, called the Pilgrims “radical zealots,” and the textbook dismissed their contribution to American history. Focusing on Anne Hutchison has become the norm for American History textbooks, not the Pilgrims. Given that, it is incumbent upon the Classical Christian teacher to reintroduce the Pilgrims to his/her students, because the Pilgrims did what we all know few would ever do and all of us need their Godly inspiration in our lives.
“Of Plimoth Plantation” by William Bradford reveals the Pilgrim’s undaunted determination to worship God freely, their struggle for survival in Holland and America, their sorrows, their their friendships with everyone they encountered, their sense of justice and duty, their flaws under a communist economic system, and how and why they wrote the first constitution in the New World. The reader becomes inspired by their grit and tenacity and the love and devotion they had for each other. When reading and analyzing the "Mayflower Compact," the reader learns how the Pilgrims planted the first seeds in America of a form of government that was based on the combination of religious liberty and civil liberty – bound together purposefully in order to create the greatest amount of human liberty under man-made government. The Pilgrims, as well as the Founding Fathers, understood that the constitutions they wrote would only work properly if all of the people living under them allowed the Holy Spirit to control their sinful natures.
Before teaching the "Mayflower Compact," the Classical Christian teacher has to be familiar with the story. Influenced by Reformation doctrine coming out of Germany, the Pilgrims became “Separatists,” and they refused to worship in the Church of England, because they disagreed with its Catholic doctrines. The Church of England, separated from Rome by King Henry VIII so that he could get a divorce, still followed the Catholic form of worship. The “Separatists” met in Scrooby, England, in their own house church. In their town, they dealt with continuous persecution by the local authorities with patience, but they recognized that they needed a place to live so that they could practice their worship services based on Protestant doctrine. Consequently, they decided to move to Holland. Despite attempts made by English officials to prevent the Pilgrims from leaving England, the Scrooby congregation finally settled in Leiden, The Netherlands. The Northern Provinces had separated from the Catholic Church and allowed Protestant worship. In addition, the Northern Province had also developed a form of republican government. For the next twelve years, the Pilgrims listened to debates on government and learned how a government based on republican principles and a rule of law created by a constitution affected the individual’s ability to follow his conscience and worship God accordingly.
These folks had been farmers and they had to learn new trades and new skills in order to survive, because Leiden’s economic system was based on international trade, and the Dutch were the largest middlemen traders of the world at the time. The physically intensive work was hard on them and their children, but they thought it was worth it because their church was able to practice Protestant doctrines freely. As time went on though, the work became so burdensome physically that many of the church members began getting old before their time. In addition, some Pilgrim children, who were the future of the church, were leaving the church after being influenced by Dutch culture. The Pilgrims realized that they were not going to be able to stay in Holland for much longer. Finally, they had moved to Holland during a time when the Northern Provinces held a truce with Spain. The Spanish king was looking to end the truce and war would soon ensue.
The Pilgrims had heard about the Jamestown settlement and that England was sending folks over to start colonies. After much prayer and deliberation, they decided that going to America was the best plan for them to maintain their religious liberty and that they could also spread the gospel to the Indians already living there. Not everyone in the church was able to go, and in the end, 102 people from the congregation made the journey across the Atlantic Ocean. When you hear about stories like this it is easy to assume that because their goals were lofty and their mission was Godly and righteous that their path was made straight and that God held their struggles at bay. As Christians, when we act in faith, we must expect it to be tested, and the Pilgrims were sorely tested.
On the way over the first ship started taking on water, so they had to go back to England and their trip was delayed long enough that when they did leave, they would arrive in late fall/early winter. On the second ship, the Mayflower, the main beam almost broke in two as they were traveling across the ocean. One of the Pilgrims had brought a printing press and they were able to use the large screw of the printing press to hold the main beam in place so they did not sink in the middle of the Atlantic. Living in the hold was miserable and filthy and many people were continuously sick from the tossing waves against the ship. When they finally arrived in Virginia, they tried for weeks to put into port, but storms prevented them. Eventually, the captain put the ship into port at Cape Cod.
Immediately, they searched out the land. After several days of exploring, they decided to settle at Cape Cod, but doing so meant that the charter they had from the king, the official document establishing the colony as being under the rule of England, was invalid because England did not have a claim in that area of North America. Only people trained to understand the rule of law and the importance of civil government would have recognized the importance of creating a new government before disembarking. There were others on the ship with them who were not of their company who were talking about each person going his own way. The Pilgrim fathers knew that would not be a good plan for any of them, so they sat down and they wrote a constitution.
When considering the Pilgrim’s situation, their actions were quite remarkable. A wilderness with unknown residents lay in front of them, the ocean lay at their back, the ship's captain was eager to get them off the boat so he could get home before his ship fell apart, and the fact that their government sanctioned charter was null and void had led to threats of anarchy. So what did the Pilgrims do before they officially started planting the colony? They created a constitutional government, with every colonists’ consent, that ensured religious and civil liberty for all.
Think about the fact that they had a limited amount of time to write their formal constitution for the colony. The words they chose were purposeful and they were intentional in the ideas they conveyed. They had been thinking and practicing a church government that had created religious freedom founded in Christ as the basis. They grouped the young folks traveling as indentured servants into families and heads of the families signed the document. Pause and wonder: Why did the Spanish not establish colonies on the eastern seaboard or anywhere in America? Why were the Pilgrims forced to land outside the jurisdiction of the King’s charter? Was it Providence or just bad luck? After analyzing the "Mayflower Compact," you may find your answer.
The Lord shows us in His Word that He uses the planting of seeds to carry out His work. The Pilgrims planted the seeds of civil government based on religious principles in Massachusetts that would germinate, take root, grow into the American Revolution, and bear fruit in the form of the U.S. Constitution. It is fun to consider whether it was providential or merely coincidental that the trouble maker colonial leaders that voiced their concerns of England’s tyranny the earliest, who pushed for and guided the revolution, and who heavily influenced the development of the U.S. Constitution came from Massachusetts.
I ask my students every year that I teach the "Mayflower Compact" to consider if they were in the same situation as the Pilgrims when they landed at Cape Cod, what they would do? What kind of document would they write if they would write any? Would they offer the maximum amount of liberty to everyone as long as people governed themselves or would they create a list of rules so the leaders could control everyone from the outset?
An important aspect of studying the Pilgrims is the contract they agreed upon with the merchant adventurers who paid for their voyage to America. The company required that the Pilgrims hold everything in common as they worked to pay them back. (An agent working on the Pilgrim’s behalf agreed to the contract. Even though they disagreed with the terms, they still accepted it in order to get their voyage to America financed.) In essence, the contract required the Pilgrims to practice a communist economic system. If you read “Of Plimoth Plantation,” Bradford details the Pilgrims’ struggle with this economic system and the ultimate failure that nearly led to the colony’s failure. The account is astounding to read, because the Pilgrims were a group of people whose love and devotion to each other had been tested severely during their first winter, when they lost half of their people, and they had succeeded in staying unified. But, when forced to implement communism, they became disunified and utterly failed. One might say, “Well, they knew supplies were coming so they had no incentive to work.” But supplies did not come, only more mouths to feed. “Well, they could buy food from the Indians, so they knew things were not dire.” They knew the Indians had no additional food to sell. With the whole purpose of coming to America on the line, the Pilgrims had an incredible incentive to make communism work, yet they could not figure out how to overcome some of the darkest aspects of their human nature. Only when they abandoned communism and everyone engaged in making their own food for their own families on their own plots of land did they prosper. The Thanksgiving story is the result of their abandonment of communism and their acceptance of a capitalist approach where every man works to make his own food.
What do the Pilgrim’s teach us about a communist economic system? It elicits the worst aspects of human nature by preventing humans from overcoming their worst tendencies to pride, selfishness, and laziness in order to meet their physical needs. What a precarious ideology and yet humankind is still bent on trying it over and over again somehow deluding ourselves into thinking that communism has just not been implemented correctly yet. If anyone could have made communism work, this group of people should have been able to make it work, because of the love and devotion they had towards each other, because their backs were against the wall, and because the whole purpose for coming to America would be lost if they failed. If the Pilgrims could not make communism work, I cannot imagine any other people who could.
The Pilgrims were not formally educated folks. They were farmers from England, turned tradesmen in Holland, who knew how to read and write and to think properly about human nature and government. They created a “civil body politick” on the fly that ensured religious and civil liberty for their nascent colony. From where did they learn these ideas? They learned them from studying the Bible, practicing government in their church, from living in Holland, and from history.
As citizens of each succeeding generation, our duty as Americans is to maintain the liberty created for us and to prevent its loss. Ask yourself and your students, will you take the education you have been given for granted, or will you pick up your mantle of responsibility as a citizen and learn the same principles of human nature and government that those who founded this country learned and implemented? What role will you play as a citizen who has been provided so much by people who sacrificed all they had to make it possible? How will you teach your children that the liberty the Constitution secures is based on the idea that people will obey God and do what is right? Without righteousness, we cannot enjoy civil liberty, because the government will have to control those who will not govern themselves. If you choose not to take part in securing liberty for future generations, then who will you give your trust to do it? What will you sacrifice to ensure America’s liberty endures for your children and grandchildren to enjoy?
The How To’s of Teaching the “Mayflower Compact”
In teaching the "Mayflower Compact," an additional set of governmental principles can be added to those used in analyzing the Magna Charta: individuality, self-government, local self-government, voluntary consent, and conscience.
Use our old friend Webster and his original 1828 dictionary (online) to define the terms:
Individuality – Separate or distinct existence; a state of oneness.
Self-government – direct, restrain, regulate, or control of one’s self
Local self-government – directing, restraining, regulating, or controlling oneselves as a group
Voluntary consent – the people agree to the laws that will govern them
Conscience – judgment of right and wrong; or the faculty, power or principle within us, which decides on the lawfulness or unlawfulness of our own actions and affections, and instantly approves or condemns them.
These principles, when talked through and understood, can be used to analyze the words of the "Mayflower Compact."
I separate the document for the students into the following phrases:
“We whose names are underwritten”
“Having undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian Faith, and honor of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the Northern parts of Virginia”
“do by these presents solemnly and mutually”
“in the presence of God and one another”
“covenant, and combine ourselves together into a civil body politick”
“for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid”
“and by virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices”
“from time to time”
“as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony”
“unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.”
“In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names”
I also highlight key words to look up in Webster’s 1828. Do not let yourself think, “Oh, I/we know what these words mean or as the teacher I can explain them well enough,” because you will find that you most likely cannot. My definitions of words are rarely as deep and meaningful as Webster’s 1828 dictionary.
When analyzing the document’s word usage, always keep at the forefront the circumstances surrounding the “Mayflower Compact” as well the usual systems of government that existed in Europe at the time – monarchy. Why use the words “covenant” and “combine” specifically? Are they not similar to one another? What does “mutually” mean and why did they choose to include this particular word? Why did they emphasize that the document was written and agreed to by everyone present and in front of one another? They promised to create “just” and “equal” laws. What does it teach us about their understanding of government that creating just and equal laws was at the top of their priority list? Why make laws only from “time to time?” They used the word “preservation.” Why? What does “general good of the colony” mean? What is the difference between “submission” and “obedience” and why would they have used both words? Why did they write twice that they had written their names under the document? What is the emphasis here?
*Note: Getting at the heart of the meaning of words is being challenged universally in our culture. In this seemingly small act of academic discipline, you can teach your students that words have real meanings, not based on feelings, but based on historical understanding of the words. So, when they read about “equality” in their other books or writings, the students can know that “equality” has a universal meaning. It is a small thing to do, but the discipline is counter-cultural, because it is training students to value the meaning of words instead of adopting a relativistic conception of words defined by “personal truth.”
Using higher order words in our daily lessons and taking the time to look them up creates a good habit in your students’ lives in a school year or less. The students come to like knowing the exact meaning of words and they will begin to look them up on their own, so always have a dictionary in your room ready to use:)
Back to the lesson.
It is important when teaching the "Mayflower Compact" that the teacher helps the students consistently think through the circumstances the Pilgrims found themselves in upon landing at Cape Cod so that they can better consider the carefully chosen language of the document. These folks had been through thick and thin with each other for over twelve years. They had evaded the police to leave England in order to worship God as they saw fit in Holland. Under threat of war and losing their children to Dutch culture, they decided to go back to England, get a charter from the king, and start a colony in the New World. Their voyage across the sea had been perilous and then they were forced to land in an area where their charter, their English form of government, was invalid. They were not the only folks on the ship and some began to talk about going their own ways. Considering they did not know what kind of people they would meet upon disembarking, that did not seem like a good idea for each person to make his own way. One person’s error could cost all of them dearly. They had a wilderness and unknown folks in front of them and the Atlantic Ocean behind them and a captain anxious to get back home. They did not have much time to think about how to organize themselves, but they had witnessed a republican form of government in Holland for the last twelve years and they had practiced their own church government. They had come to understand that a government could be formed where the people would be expected to govern themselves individually and collectively by the aid of the Holy Spirit so that the government itself had as little influence as possible over their daily lives. They persuaded everyone on the ship, even those not of their party and not necessarily religious, to join in the writing and signing of the "Mayflower Compact."
The "Mayflower Compact"
Agreement between the Settlers at New Plymouth, 1620
In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal Subjects of our dread sovereign Lord King James, by the grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, &c.
Having undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian Faith, and honor of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the Northern parts of Virginia; do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and one another, covenant, and combine ourselves together into a civil body politick, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.
In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the 11. of November, in the year of the reign of our sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, Anno Domini 1620.
John Carver William Bradford Edward Winslow William Brewster Isaac Allerton Myles Standish John Alden Samuel Fuller Christopher Martin William Mullins William White Richard Warren John Howland Stephen Hopkins Edward Tilley John Tilley Francis Cooke Thomas Rogers Thomas Tinker John Rigsdale Edward Fuller John Turner Francis Eaton James Chilton John Crackstone John Billington Moses Fletcher John Goodman Degory Priest Thomas Williams Gilbert Winslow Edmund Margesson Peter Browne Richard Britteridge George Soule Richard Clarke Richard Gardiner John Allerton Thomas English Edward Doty Edward Leister
For the actual exercise, I discuss with the students each phrase to be considered with key words defined. They can take notes for use later. When I present the assignment, I challenge them in a manner that they absolutely love.
Students are to write out short 3-4 sentence paragraphs just as they did with Magna Charta in which they explain what the phrase means in historical context if necessary, what the principle means, and how they correlate with one another. I call them arguments. I tell the students that for every argument they write that is logical and follows the directions, they will receive five points with the potential of receiving up to 275 points on the assignment worth 110 points. Each phrase is required to have two arguments, so writing any extra arguments also hedge against mistakes.
Incentivized, the students work diligently writing out arguments. I will do the first phrase with the class to provide a good, working model. I will read a couple of arguments for each student maximum if they ask for assistance, and then they are completely on their own. I do allow them to ask questions as far as thinking things through, but not in front of the entire class. I grade honestly, so they know that their work is good or needs more consideration.
For all of the arguments, I do not give partial credit. The students either make the correlation or they do not. Technically, every phrase can be argued to correlate all five governmental principles used for the document, but forced arguments should not be counted for credit.
For example, “We whose names are underwritten,” expresses all of the principles defined above.
Individuality – A person’s name represents a unique individual, or individual family, so the word “names” correlates with individuality, because each person is a distinct person. Because the document says that their “names are underwritten,” the phrase implies that each individual person or head of family signed his name voluntarily.
Voluntary Consent – By signing their name voluntarily, they agreed to the purpose of the document and to follow the guidelines laid out for making laws for themselves, which corresponds with the principle of voluntary consent that states the people agree to the laws that will govern them.
Self-government – When signing your name to a document, you are agreeing to hold yourself accountable for the requirements you agreed to and that can only be done through exercising self-government. Self-government means that you control yourself, so by signing the document, the people are agreeing to control themselves according to the constitution they had written.
Local self-government – They agreed as a group, because they all signed their names, so they also practiced local self-government, which is a group controlling themselves.
Conscience – No one usually signs anything that they have not judged to be right morally. By signing their names, the people were saying that they judged the written words of the new government to be in line with their conscience, which judges right from wrong.
The Pilgrim
by John Bunyan
Who would true Valor see
Let him come hither;
One here will Constant be,
Come Wind, come Weather.
There’s no Discouragement,
Shall make him once Relent,
His first avowed Intent,
To be a Pilgrim.
Who so beset him round,
With dismal Stories,
Do but themselves Confound;
His Strength the more is.
No Lion can him fright,
He’ll with a Giant Fight,
But he will have a right,
To be a Pilgrim.
Hobgoblin, nor foul Fiend,
Can daunt his Spirit:
He knows, he at the end,
Shall Life Inherit.
Then Fancies fly away,
He’ll fear not what men say,
He’ll labor Night and Day,
To be a Pilgrim.