Mayflower Compact

Religion and the Mayflower Contract

Some of the very first settlers to the United States were escaping religious persecution in Europe, but that in no way changed their mind about their connection between their religion and how they would later govern themselves. The Puritan settlers came to the New World with ideas of starting a new colony, with religion and governance intertwined. As they signed the Mayflower Contract, they believed they would be able to continue living in this manner; yet as the history of the early United States progressed, it was clear that there would be a demand for a wall of separation between Church and State that would protect religious freedom but also disconnect religious doctrines to legal doctrines.

The Puritans saw their religious and secular devotion as one in the same. When they had the opportunity to leave the religious persecution back home in England,...
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