3. The third book I read was, “The Mayflower Compact” by Elizabeth Raum. I paired this book with a fiction book called, “If you Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620” which was a fiction story about what Pilgrims life was like and how they felt when they first found land. This book goes into detail about how often the houses of Pilgrims were very small with only one chair. It also mentions how they made their own beds. In the nonfiction book, the author goes into great detail about how pilgrims lived as well. It goes into depth about their journey on the Mayflower and their first encounter with land as well. The dates in the nonfiction are accurate and this offers definitions to words and real pilgrims names and birthdates and descriptions are also included. However both books teach about the life of an average pilgrim and how different life was for them!
In celebration of this Thanksgiving season, I believe it's appropriate to read America's first magna carta. Our Pilgrim fathers came to America to establish a new home for themselves and their posterity. As beneficiaries of their hardships and sacrifices, it's important to remember and honor their memories by living the best we can through the religious freedom that they fought so hard to establish in this choice land.
It's been 400 years since they came to this hemisphere, and I give thanks to the Lord for His blessings bestowed to us in this land of promise. Also, I selected "genealogy" for a book shelf because my (possible) ancestors sailed across the Atlantic Ocean on the Mayflower; John Alden was one of the signers of this Compact, and I've learned recently that is my 9th great-grandfather.
The Mayflower Compact was the first legislative document connected with a New World body, signed among the Mayflower Pilgrims to give them authority over their American colony. I read it in my American history class, and it was much shorter than I expected. The important parts about gathering a governing body and making rights were only a sentence long. Most of the document had to do with how God gave the Pilgrims the right to settle America.
This important historical document is a direct ancestor to the American Constitution, but it is a disappointment. It specifies “northern Virginia” meaning the New York/New Jersey area, and the Pilgrims landed in an even more northernly area than that, in what is now Massachusetts. It also talk too much of religion and the grace of God for my modern ears. The Mayflower Compact disappointed me, but I can still admire its historical importance.
Keeping in mind that this is a brief historical and legal document, I'm not going t rate it as I would literature. It is, in effect, a vision statement or a mission statement. I thought it would be longer than it was. I thought there would be a lot of legal minutiae. I'm glad I read it.
For some reason, I thought this was going to be much longer. Although it's basically just a statement, it's a very important historical document that I'm looking forward to discussing with my class.
obvs quite short, but important in setting out an explicit social contract for the furtherance of the commonweal in exchange for obedience. its also interesting to consider the context of mutinous passengers aboard the mayflower that made the compact expedient & the pilgrims desire to break from the church of england, while still pledging allegiance to the king in the doc. an absence of any mention of others as if they were settling on virgin land ofc. neat to see john billingtons name on it, whose story was discussed in manns 1491
🖊 My review: This is a much shorter document than we perhaps understood it to be when we learned about it in school. This compact was written and signed on November 21, 1620 (old style calendar; new style is November 11th).
This is worth a re-read every Thanksgiving holiday.
🔥 Dénouement: Optimistic. 🔻 Genre: Legal; history. ✔️Published in November 21, 1620. 💠 Setting: The New World. 🖋 The writing style: Easy. 🗝 What I learned: This is a very short document. 💫 What I like best: The promise it holds. 📌 Would I read this again? Why, yes; of course. 🤔 My rating 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 ◼️ Fun fact: This is a vastly important document to the founding of the United States. 🟣 Media form: Kindle version. 🔲 Excerpts :
🔸. The Mayflower Compact November 11, 1620 [This was November 21, old style calendar]
The Mayflower Compact represents the way forward in our current society of divided ideals. Somehow we have to find common ground and see our neighbor as our brothers that we need to fight for and not against.