What was the name of the group that signed the Mayflower Compact?
Plymouth Colony did not have a royal charter authorizing it to form a government, yet some means of governance was needed. The Mayflower Compact was the colony's first governing document, signed by the 41 able-bodied Separatists aboard the Mayflower upon their arrival in Provincetown Harbor on November 21, 1620. Formal laws were not codified until 1636. The colony's laws were based on a hybrid of English common law and religious law as laid out in the Bible. The colonial authorities were deeply influenced by Calvinist theology, and were convinced that democracy was the form of government mandated by God.The colony offered nearly all adult males potential citizenship. Full citizens, or "freemen", were accorded full rights and privileges in areas such as voting and holding office. To be considered a freeman, adult males had to be sponsored by an existing freeman and accepted by the General Court. Later restrictions established a one-year waiting period between nominating and granting of freeman status, and also placed religious restrictions on the colony's citizens, specifically preventing Quakers from becoming freemen. Freeman status was also restricted by age; the official minimum age was 21, although in practice most men were elevated to freeman status between the ages of 25 and 40, averaging somewhere in their early thirties. The colony established a disabled veterans' fund in 1636 to support veterans who returned from service with disabilities. In 1641, the Body of Liberties developed protections for people who were unable to perform public service.
Plymouth Colony