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This bas-relief depicting the signing of the Mayflower Compact is on Bradford Street in Provincetown directly below the Pilgrim Monument.

Signing of the Mayflower Compact, a painting by Edward Percy Moran, which hangs at the Plymouth Museum.

The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was drafted by the "Pilgrims" who crossed the Atlantic aboard the Mayflower, seeking religious freedom. It was signed on November 21, 1620 (N.S.) in what is now Provincetown Harbor near Cape Cod. The Pilgrims used the Julian Calendar which, at that time, was ten days behind the Gregorian Calendar, signing the covenant "ye .11. of November" (literal). Having landed at Plymouth (so named by Captain John Smith earlier), many of the Pilgrims aboard realized that they were in land uncharted by the London Company. For this reason the Mayflower Compact was written and adopted, based simultaneously upon a majoritarian model and the settlers' allegiance to the king. Many of the passengers knew that earlier settlements in the New World had failed due to a lack of government, and the Mayflower Compact was in essence a social contract in which the settlers consented to follow the rules and regulations of the government for the sake of survival. The government, in return, would derive its power from the consent of the governed.

The compact is often referred to as the foundation of the Constitution of the United States^[1], in a figurative, not literal, way.

As a side note, the 'dread soveraigne' referred to in the document used the archaic definition of dread, meaning awe and reverence. They were implying awe and reverence for the King and not fear.

The original document was lost, but the transcriptions in Mourt's Relation and William Bradford's journal Of Plymouth Plantation are in agreement and accepted as accurate. The Bradford follows:

In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwriten, the loyall subjects of our dread soveraigne Lord King James by the grace of God, of Great Britaine, Franc, & Ireland king, defender of the faith, e&
Haveing undertaken, for the glorie of God, and advancemente of the Christian faith and honour of our king & countrie, a voyage to plant the first colonie in the Northerne parts of Virginia, doe by these presents solemnly & mutualy in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant & combine our selves togeather into a civill body politick, for our better ordering & preservation & furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by vertue hearof to enacte, constitute, and frame such just & equall lawes, ordinances, Acts, constitutions, & offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meete & convenient for the generall good of the Colonie, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witnes wherof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cap-Codd ye .11. of November, in the year of the raigne of our soveraigne Lord King James, of England, France, & Ireland ye eighteenth, and of Scotland the fiftie fourth. Ano: Dom. 1620.^[2]

Bradford's transcription of the compact

The list of 41 male passengers who signed was supplied by Bradford's nephew Nathaniel Morton in his 1669 New England's Memorial. There are no surviving first-hand accounts of this information. ^[3]

• John Carver
• Digery Priest
• William Brewster
• Edmund Margeson
• John Alden
• George Soule
• James Chilton
• Francis Cooke
• Edward Doten
• Moses Fletcher
• John Rigdale
• Christopher Martin
• William Mullins
• Thomas English
• John Howland
• Stephen Hopkins
• Edward Winslow
• Gilbert Winslow
• Myles Standish
• Richard Bitteridge
• Francis Eaton
• John Tilly
• John Billington
• Thomas Tinker
• Samuel Fuller
• Richard Clark
• John Allerton
• Richard Warren
• Edward Leister
• William Bradford
• Thomas Williams
• Isaac Allerton
• Chester Chesterson
• Peter Brown
• John Turner
• Edward Tilly
• John Craxton
• Thomas Rogers
• John Goodman
• Edward Fuller
• Richard Gardiner
• William White