USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -On November 11, 1620, 41 adult male colonists, including two indentured servants, signed the Mayflower Compact, although it wasn’t called that at the time.

Detailed explanation-2: -According to Morton, the document was signed by 41 of the male passengers – all but one of the freemen, three of the five hired men, and two of the nine servants.

Detailed explanation-3: -Of the 50 men on board the Mayflower, only 41 were classed as “true” Pilgrims, religious separatists seeking freedom from the Church of England. The others, meanwhile, were considered common folk and included merchants, craftsmen, indentured servants and orphaned children.

Detailed explanation-4: -It simply bound the signers into a “Civil Body Politic” for the purpose of passing “just and equal Laws . . . for the general good of the Colony.” But those few words expressed the idea of self-government for the first time in the New World.

Detailed explanation-5: -Forty-one men signed the Compact, beginning with Governor John Carver and ending with Edward Lester. Nine adult males on board did not sign the document; some had been hired as seamen only for one year and others may have been too ill to write.