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What was the Mayflower Compact that the Pilgrims adopted aboard ship?
AA charter granted by the London Company
BA treaty made with the local Indians
CAn instrument for their own government
DA trading contract with Dutch merchants
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: C. An instrument for their own government
1. Had the Pilgrims settled in Virginia they would have come under the London Company.
2. In their own colony of Plymouth they were beyond any governmental jurisdiction.
3. So aboard the Mayflower they adopted an instrument for government of their own.
4. That instrument was the Mayflower Compact, by which they combined into a civil body politic.
5. There was no legal basis for it, but nobody contested the arrangement.
_Source: An Outline of American History (U.S. Information Agency, 1990, public domain), section BRITISH RELUCTANTLY YIELD_
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