Editing Mayflower Compact (section)

==History==
The [[Pilgrims]] had originally hoped to reach America in early October using two ships, but delays and complications meant they could use only one, the ''Mayflower''. Their intended destination had been the [[Colony of Virginia]], with the journey financed by the [[Company of Merchant Adventurers of London]]. Storms forced them to anchor at the hook of [[Cape Cod]] in [[Massachusetts]], however, as it was unwise to continue with provisions running short. This inspired some of the non-Puritan passengers (whom the Puritans referred to as "Strangers") to proclaim that they "would use their own liberty; for none had power to command them" since they would not be settling in the agreed-upon Virginia territory.<ref name="bradford1620"/> To prevent this, the Pilgrims determined to establish their own government, while still affirming their allegiance to the Crown of England. Thus, the Mayflower Compact was based simultaneously upon a [[majoritarianism|majoritarian]] model and the settlers' allegiance to the king. It was in essence a social contract in which the settlers consented to follow the community's rules and regulations for the sake of order and survival.{{sfn|Young|1841|p=120}}

Similar arguments had been unsuccessfully made by the shipwrecked passengers of the ''[[Sea Venture]]'', a similar, earlier group bound for the Colony of Virginia, and specifically by one [[Stephen Hopkins (Mayflower passenger)|Stephen Hopkins]],<ref name=Kelly>{{cite web |last1=Kelly |first1=Joseph |title=How the Survivor of a 1609 Shipwreck Brought Democracy to America |url=https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2019/06/24/how-the-survivor-of-a-1609-shipwreck-brought-democracy-to-america/ideas/essay/icsquare.org/2019/06/24/how-the-survivor-of-a-1609-shipwreck-brought-democracy-to-america/ideas/essay/ |website=Zocalo Public Square |access-date=19 February 2022 |date=24 June 2019 }}</ref> who had, as a result, been convicted of mutiny and sentenced to death, but pardoned,<ref name=Johnson>{{cite book |first=Caleb |last=Johnson |title=The Mayflower and Her Passengers |location=Indiana |publisher=Xlibris |year=2006}}</ref>{{Self-published inline|certain=yes|date=December 2017}}{{rp|162–163}} and is thought to be the Stephen Hopkins aboard the ''Mayflower''<ref name=Kelly/> and among the Compact signatories.

The Pilgrims had lived for some years in [[Leiden]], a city in the [[Dutch Republic]]. Historian [[Nathaniel Philbrick]] states, "Just as a spiritual covenant had marked the beginning of their congregation in Leiden, a civil covenant would provide the basis for a secular government in America."<ref>{{cite book |first=Nathaniel |last=Philbrick |year=2006 |title=Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War |publisher=Penguin |location=New York |isbn=978-0143111979 |page=41}}</ref>