The Mayflower Compact was the foundational document for the Plymouth Colony. The fact that it was a covenant whereby the settlers would subordinate their rights to follow laws passed by the government to ensure protection and survival made it a unique document. As previously stated, it set a precedent and was indeed an influential document for the founding fathers as they created the US Constitution.

A list of 41 male passengers who signed the document was supplied by Bradford's nephew Nathaniel Morton in his 1669 New England's Memorial. Thomas Prince first numbered the names in his 1736 A Chronological History of New-England in the form of Annals.Because the original document has been lost, Morton (1669) is our sole source for the signers. Although he probably had access to the original document, he could not have known simply by inspecting it the actual order that it was signed. Morton's arrangement of names is probably not the arrangement of names on the original document, and the names may not have been arranged in any orderly fashion. Prince's numbers are based solely on Morton (1669) as he himself stated. His numbers are unfortunate because he could not have known the order that the original document was signed.

Morton's list of names was unnumbered and untitled in all editions although their order changed with successive editions. In his original 1669 edition, the columns were placed on two successive pages (15–16) forming six short columns, three columns of seven names each (headed Carver, Samuel Fuller, and Edward Tilley) on the first page and three columns of seven, seven, and six names each (headed Turner, Priest, and Clarke) on the next page.

The Mayflower was originally bound for the Colony of Virginia, financed by the Company of Merchant Adventurers of London. Storms forced the landing to be at the hook of Cape Cod in what is now Massachusetts. This inspired some of the passengers to proclaim that since the settlement would not be made in the agreed upon Virginia territory, they "would use their own liberty; for none had power to command them...." To prevent this, many of the other colonists chose to establish a government. The Mayflower Compact was based simultaneously upon a majoritarian model (even though the signers were not in the majority) and the settlers' allegiance to the king. It was in essence a social contract in which the settlers consented to follow the compact's rules and regulations for the sake of survival.

In November 1620, the Mayflower landed at Plymouth, named after the major port city in Devon, England from which she sailed. The settlers named their settlement "Plimoth" or "Plimouth", using the Early Modern English spellings of the early 17th century.

In basic terms, the Mayflower Compact was a social contract whereby the forty-one men who signed it agreed to abide by the new government's laws in exchange for shared protection. Unfortunately, the original document has been lost. William Bradford included a transcription of the document in his book,Of Plymouth Plantation. In part his transcription states:

"Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia, do by these present solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, Covenant and Combine ourselves together into a Civil Body Politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to 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."

The Mayflower Compact is often cited as one of the foundations of the US Constitution. The story of its creation begins with the Pilgrims in England.Pilgrims were separatists from the Anglican Church in England. They were protestants who did not recognize the authority of the Anglican Church and formed their own Puritan church. To escape persecution and possible imprisonment, they actually fled England for Holland in 1607. They lived in Holland for awhile before deciding to create their own colony in the New World. They received a land patent from the Virginia Company and created their own joint-stock company for the enterprise.