Wisely Governing the Pilgrims, William Bradford Applied the Mayflower Compact to Form a Rough Democracy

“The Mayflower on Her Arrival in Plymouth Harbor” by William Halsall, 1882. Oil on canvas. Pilgrim Hall Museum, Plymouth. Public domain

Death came to them in many guises. A sailor who had blasphemed in front of the children fell ill from fever and was buried at sea. Dorothy, the wife of Pilgrim William Bradford, reached the New Land but slipped from the moored Mayflower and drowned in the freezing waters of Cape Cod harbor. By the end of their first winter in this wilderness, 1620–1621, almost half of the original 102 settlers had died, most of them from disease.

The first governor of the colony was the capable John Carver. He was quite possibly the author of “The Mayflower Compact,” a covenant of basic democratic rules by which the colonists would govern themselves, signed by 41 of the men going ashore. He directed the building of houses, the gathering of food, and with the help of Squanto, a native who spoke fluent English, engineered a treaty with Massasoit of the Wampanoag Confederacy. Yet by the spring of 1621, Carver too had gone to the grave, a victim of heat stroke or bad water.

A New Governor

The colonists who escaped this winter of death then elected William Bradford governor, a post he would hold for most of the next 30 years.

In several ways, his past had well prepared Bradford for this responsibility. Orphaned at an early age, and raised by an uncle on a farm where he worked in the fields, Bradford also spent a portion of his boyhood ill and confined to bed. There, he immersed himself in the Bible and other religious texts. By the time he was a teenager, he had decided he was a Separatist, a branch of the Puritans seeking to break from the rites and rituals of the Anglican Church. When the Separatists later emigrated to the Netherlands to escape government persecution, Bradford was among them, working in the cloth trade and deepening both his faith and his familiarity with like-minded dissenters. He was, then, an educated believer who knew the meaning of hard physical work.

Protestant pilgrims are shown on the deck of the ship Speedwell before their departure for America from Delft Haven, Holland, on July 22, 1620. “Embarkation of the Pilgrims” by Robert Walter Weir, 1844. Oil on canvas. United States Capitol, Washington. Architect of the Capitol

Despite these advantages, like his predecessor, Bradford faced grave challenges. The colonists who had stepped ashore at Plymouth were divided into Separatists and Strangers. The latter had traveled to the New World not for religious freedom but from motives of wealth and ambition. Native tribes might still threaten the colonists, so weakened were they by sickness and death. Fields must be planted, more houses and a fortress built, and land fairly distributed to every family, excluding servants. In the meantime, they could expect only rare, intermittent assistance from England. In that regard, they might as well have lived on Mars.

And William Bradford met these challenges. Moreover, he and the other Plymouth settlers gave our nation a basket filled with gifts.

Many Gifts

The “Mayflower Compact” is a short document—it can be read in a couple of minutes—but therein lies a phrase that would guide Bradford and would eventually influence the American Revolution and Constitution. The signers of the compact vowed to “combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick” that would “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.”

“Thanksgiving at Plymouth” by Jennie Augusta Brownscombe, 1925. Public domain

For their time, those concepts were as earth-shaking as Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. They were a social contract for a rough democracy, and Bradford ensured they remained more than words written and then forgotten. He called the first town meeting in 1621, and this tradition remains in force today in several New England states. He played a major part in settling legal and financial issues among the colonists. He was instrumental in helping pay off the debt incurred with an investor for the voyage, thereby freeing up his neighbors to keep more of the earnings from their labor for themselves.

In addition, Bradford welcomed other non-Separatists to settle in Plymouth. This practice of tolerance was unusual for its day, especially in the wake of religious wars and the upheavals in England during the previous century. The Strangers of the original company, for example, as well as the non-Separatists who followed them, were not required to attend Sunday worship services and were generally treated as equals. One of these, Myles Standish, is remembered in Bradford’s journal, “Of Plymouth Plantation,” with affection and gratitude for his tending of the sick the first winter and his subsequent military leadership.

Illustrated postcard of Gov. Bradford’s house at Plymouth, Mass., in 1621. Public domain

Out of Small Beginnings

In “Of Plymouth Plantation,” we find this entry: “Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand that made all things of nothing, and gives being to all things that are; and, as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone unto many.”

In November 1621, Governor Bradford organized a Thanksgiving for good crops, a three-day festival of prayer, festivities, and food attended by Separatists, Strangers, and 90 members of the Wampanoag tribe.

Whatever our economy may bring this fall, most of us will also likely celebrate Thanksgiving with friends and family. As we enjoy our meals and express our gratitude for the blessings we’ve received, this day also provides the perfect opportunity to remember the Plymouth Colony’s “one small candle” and the light it would bring to the entire world.

This article was originally published in American Essence magazine.