We think of the pilgrims as our forbearers and we have a right to do so but it is important to remember they and the other new englanders settling at the time did not imagine they were settling United States of america. Nothing could have been further from their minds. They were doing something entirely different. They were about the business of establishing a place where they could enjoy a pure and uncorrupted church. The settlers of virginia were motivated by material considerations, gold, wealth, material wealth. The settlers of new england were driven by religious zeal. Most of them were puritans, men and women of a company spent who believed the church of england had not gone far enough to purge itself of its corrupt aspects and would despair of a cleansing renewal ever coming in their lifetimes, and hence their decision to emigrate to the new beginning. In particular were not only calvinists but separatists, meaning they had separated themselves from the aurch of england as they hopelessly corrupted body and they preferred to worship an independent congregational selfgoverning churches. After living in exile they secured the land patent that enabled them to establish an english colony where they could practice their faith freely. That was their dream. Came onhe ocean they their mayflower at today what is is today capeat cod. A place outside the jurisdiction of any known government. That was a problem. And presentlear dangers in the circumstances which were unexpected, and at the groups leaders knew that. They were especially worried the colony might not be able to hold together as a lawabiding entity in the absence of some larger controlling authority. Half of those on board were not members of the separatists group. They were known as strangers, the pilgrims term for them. Variousrs who had motives, mostly nonreligious, for making the trip but whose skill and labor were going to be essential to the success of the colony. Some of the strangers had indicated once it was known where the landing would be taking place that because the outsideould be planted the of the Royal Charter they might feel free to go whenever they wanted and use their own liberty, for none had the power to command them. This was a frightening prospect to the leaders. What were they going to do about it . Was they did in response drafted and signed on november 11 a short document they would come to call the plymouth combination. We call it the mayflower compact, although that was not applied until the 1790s. In that document they committed themselves to covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, and committed themselves to obey any and all laws and authorities that would be established thereby. This would turn out to be one of the most primal constitutional moments in history. Once established the principle of selfrule that would be the heartbeat of the American Republic and its free institutions. Before thenturies philosopher jean john pistole express the idea, these pilgrim settlers were living it. They had grasped that freedom means not lawlessness but living in accordance with the law that you dictate to yourself. Inauspicious as this event was at the time taking place so far away from the known world, the centers of power and influence and population and civilization, it proved to be a crucial milestone in the development of self governing political institutions. The signatories were following the same pattern of selfgovernment that new englanders would use in organizing their churches. Just as in congregational churches ordinary believers came together to create selfgoverning churches, so with the mayflower compact a group of ordinary people came together to create their own government and in doing so asserted their right to do so. What made these developments even more astonishing was that they amounted to a real dramatization of the theory that Civil Society was based on a social contract among its members. Here was a case where a group had actually done it. And they did it years before john locke and tom a sobs had aroundhobbes had gotten to doing it. Not to mention 1. 5 centuries before the declaration of the independence was proclaimed governments derive their consent from the government. It is the right of the people to Institute New government laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its thems in such form as to will seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Made this amazing connection, let me qualify it in some ways, important ways. First and most importantly this agreement aboard the mayflower it was not something being fashioned in a prepolitical, precultural state of nature. Although we have to do is look close at the document to see that he very clearly the document begins with the words in the name of god. He proceeds to identify signatories as loyal subjects of our dread sovereign lord king james. Asidentifies their voice having been undertaken for the glory of god and advancement of the Christian Faith and honor of our king and country. It identifies the signatories as endorsing the agreement in the presence of god and one another. Not exactly the state of nature, and it proposes the goal of framing just and equal laws that promote the general good of the colony. In other words, this agreement fromorrowing at every turn the religious, political, legal, oftural, moral practices contemporary england. It was not starting fresh, not at all. It was building on deep foundations, and even when the declaration of independence appeared on the scene, it drew not only other theories of john locke but also on that same deep reservoir of experience and at subsequental of 150 american colonial experience of selfgovernance. Selfgovernment in massachusetts, in virginia, in pennsylvania, in all of the original colonies. Othert let me make one point. We should not forget in the telling of this story the sheer daring and courage of the pilgrims, the courage that they showed in undertaking this astonishing journey, the astonishing depth of their faith, their commitment to faith. When they landed at cape cod they might as well have been landing on the surface of the moon. Surely there were those among them, and i do not think just a bitwho must have quaked a silently and inwardly even at their joy of making landfall and wondered for one moment and maybe more for a moment if it had not all been an active madness that had brought them there away from everything that they had known, everything that was familiar into the terrors and uncertainties of a strange and very forbidding land. Some of what they must have been feeling was expressed by liam bradford, their leader, when they arrived at cape cod. Let me quote from him. Past the vast ocean and a sea of troubles before them and expectations they had no friends to welcome them or entertain their weatherbeaten bodies. No houses or much less tends to repair to. Besides, what could they see but a tedious and desolate wilderness full of wild beasts and wild men. And what role do then they knew not. That for which ever way they turned their eyes save upward to heaven they could have but little solace or content and respect of any outward object. All things stand in appearance with a weatherbeaten face. And the countries woods and think its resented this represented a wild and savage view. They look to bind them. There was a mighty ocean which they had passed and which was now as a main bar or golf to separate them from all of the civil parts of the world. What could now sustain them but the spirit of god in his grace . What indeed but the religious faith that they possessed so strongly just as it had propelled him across the seas. And yet we should not forget that the mayflower compact did not establish a theocracy, a rule by religion. Language is ringed about my christian imagery and assumptions, and those images and assumptions are of central importance to the whole story. The religious faith was the thing that drove them across the seas in search of a better and more faithful way of life, but the mayflower compact, in the mayflower compact the pilgrims widely chose a government based on civil agreement, not on compulsory divine or Biblical Authority or edict. It was designed to embrace and strangers, those who are not members of the church but whose contributions to the life of the colony was understood to be essential to its success. Call it pragmatic. Call it inclusive. Whatever we call it, it is central to our understanding of what happens with the mayflower compact. The would be learned in nearly two centuries of british north american Colonial Life and much of what was learned came out of this interplay between high hopes and hard, pragmatic realities. Above all else what was being learned in the english colonies was the habit of selfrule developed in the lives of free colonists who were not who theiroo distanced from governors to be ruled from afar. The mayflower compact will serve as a model for all that was to come, including the american revolution. A free people coming together under god and by their own initiative establishing the institutions by which they would rule themselves. To thatontinue to look model and that example. Thank you. Mcclay. You, dr. That was incredible and as always we think youre the best qualified to have given us that spectacular presentation. Inrica was the first Nation History founded on a specific greed, a fundamental belief that liberty and equality for every human soul. It is a creed rooted in natural law and natural rights. Its political expression is in limited government, popular sovereignty, the separation of powers and a vibrant Civil Society, animated by private associations and communities of every kind. These ideas are central to americas identity and over time americased into distinct political, social, and economic culture as a nation. Dr. Jeffrey morrison is here with us today to discuss the mayflower compact and religious liberty in the United States. He will reaffirm the importance of american institutions, particularly religious freedom and the freedom of speech, as well as Civil Society. Necessary to is respond to the emerging narrative that aims to deconstruct american institutions and working Civil Society. Dr. Jeffrey morrison is professor of american studies at Christopher Newport university in virginia and director of academics at the federal governments James Madison foundation in alexandria, virginia. Has held faculty positions from Princeton University to the u. S. Air force academy. He has published as an author and editor five books on american political culture, including the political philosophy of George Washington. Ladies and gentlemen, let us give dr. Morrison a warm welcome. Thank you for that introduction and in the next 12 minutes i will talk about the main power compact and its mayflower compact and its relationship to religious liberty. That is an American Innovation, and it begins with the people we call the pilgrims in 1620. It will continue in subsequent decades of the 17th century and 18th century, especially in virginia. Jefferson, James Madison, George Washington and others will continue to perfect that innovation of religious liberty. It is the pilgrims could begin it 1620. We call them pilgrims because that is what they call themselves. One of their leaders William Bradford wrote a book called of plymouth plantation, which he describes their life and motives and watch of what we know of them comes from that book, and in that book he describes why they went where they went, did what they did, and why they took ship eventually in the mayflower and came to the new world. It was not the first time those pilgrims had left england. We call them separatists. They were a subset of the puritans, that group of protestant christians who had churchconvinced that the of england, the Anglican Church, was susceptible to corruption and had become overly catholic in its liturgy and faith and practice. They hoped to purify it, to return the Anglican Church to a more pristine form of christianity, one more closely modeled on the new testament of primitive christianity. These pilgrims had concluded that it was impossible to do, the Anglican Church had become irredeemably corrupted and they could no longer stay in the Anglican Church. They had to leave. They went first to holland to a bustling commercial city where for the most part they were tolerated and not persecuted as is commonly believed. They had become concerned that their children and grandchildren and subsequent generations would become corrupted by too secular and commercial of an environment, that they were losing some of their zeal and first love. They made a decision we will go back to england, apply for a charter to go to the new world and hire a ship to take us there. They did applied to a charter from the crown, which was denied. In an effort to make their venture legal they went to the Virginia Company. , whichrporation outfitted and backed the expedition headed by Christopher Newport, the namesake of mike university. Which is settled eventually on Jamestown Island and thus printed the First Permanent british colony in north america. Between that legal tie the pilgrims and settlers at jamestown. One could even say there is commonality of purpose as well. If you look at a charter that is eventually given to the settlers in massachusetts, the first charter of 1629, and you look at the first charter of virginia, for instance, there are commercial purposes mentioned that there, but there are religious purposes as well. These two parallel missions in virginia as well as in new england. Reason scribes the bradford describes the reason they went and this was backed up by later preachers and figures and the reason they went was not to create a tolerant regime or plantation of religious liberty. They went to rule, to create what they considered godly commonwealth. Just several years later i will read a line or two from a sermon in 1629 by the reverend Samuel Willard in which he said i perceive they are mistaken in design of our settle, toess was to cure religion to prosperity according to that way which they believe was one of thought. You can verify this by looking at the charter of 1629, in which the incitement of the natives of the country to the obedience of faith is the principal of the plantation. Necessarily not toleration, much less religious liberty, which is a more robust concept than mere toleration. Religion in that instance is considered to be a natural right, a human right, a godgiven right. Why did they draw up this document, these pilgrims on the mayflower . In september 1620 across the tempestuous ocean. During that voyage the main mast cracks. They thought they would have to return back to england. They were able to repair it, continue on but in the course of that journey they were blown off course. To there intending to go northern parts of virginia. That is where they had that patent for that land. So it becomes evident to them when they sight land, drop anchor off of what is now cape cod that they are not where they intended to go and the legal document they have is no longer valid, it is moved. It is moot the pilgrims are only part of the human cargo of the mayflower. There were roughly 70 nonpilgrim passengers who had likewise but there passage on their ship, the retrofitted ship, and they are fleeing england, fleeing economic hardship, in some cases creditors. In some cases they are fleeing of the law. They are a rough bunch of customers in some ways. The pilgrims overhear them talking once everyone realizes we are not where we intended to go, we have no Legal Authority here. They overheard some of the rougher customers threatening to live without law once they go ashore. On the fly under the pressure of circumstances they create the first written social contract of which i am aware in the history of the western world. Certainly it is the first britishcontract in the american colonies, and that is a remarkable thing and it should not be undervalued. Generation, nearly two generations before thomas hobbes, other political philosophers like john locke, Jeanjacques Rousseau will be writing about a social contract theorizing about individuals in a socalled state of nature agreeing with one another to give up some of their rights in order to form a Civil Society. Happening int realtime time under the pressure of events, and it is a remarkable performance that they give their in the galley of the mayflower. It is a very compact document so it is worth looking at a few lines of it and parse it out. It begins, in the name of god, amen, we whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects , defender ofames the faith, etc. , the word etc. Is in their, they are invoking gods name. They could have said what perhaps would have been a more familiar formulation, in the name of the father, the son, the holy spirit. They do not do that because this is a mixed group of persons whose signatures they are keen to get on this document, the social contract. It is sometimes referred to as a constitution, but it is not a constitution. It is at best a protoconstitution. It creates a Political Committee consciously of equals, individuals and bribes of families who are willing to abide by they make a promise to one another, we will abide by the laws that we ourselves will write in the future as long as those laws are just. They could invest themselves to be the loyal subjects of their red sovereign king james, the same king james who lent his name to the version of the bible still read today, the authorized version authorized by him. Had beenf puritans agitating him for a cleaner version of the bible. At one that did not have commentaries and footnotes. Insort of begrudgingly gave and authorize this new translation of the bible for them. The puritans bible you might say. They are the loyal subjects of king james. They are not leaving england. They do not intend by leaving england to leave behind their subject to it or announced renounce the authority of the king above them. In a way it is a declaration of religious independence, a statement of religious liberty, because it leaving they have left behind his church, the church of england, of which he is the titular head. They are saying religion we no noter accept, but we do reject your authority and we are coming in a sense for god and country. For the glory of god and advancement of the Christian Faith and honor of their king and country. We are taking this voyage to plant the first colony and the northern parts of virginia. Languageis the salient. In the presence of god and one covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance. It is a lovely image, is not it . It is an organic, intimate image of civil body politic, a body as a unity. When one part of your body hurts your whole body hurts. When one part of the body feels good the whole body feels good. This is a corporate endeavor upon which they are engaged and they are very keen to get and do get the signatures of every adult male head of household who signs as an equal. One signature is not more weighty than another. They are individuals before signing this, but after it signing they are now a committee. Of thet i think is one great legacies, and their actions in leaving england are a statement of religious independence, but by crafting the civil body politic they create the space for civil body politic and laws in the future. Thank you dr. Morrison. What an incredible presentation. Toare going to march back november 11, at 1620 when in english settlers arrived in the new world seeking religious freedom. Lets remember when the pilgrims landed near cape cod, massachusetts they quickly realized they needed something more, a document that would make possible a selfgoverning community. The result we have been talking about all day it the mayflower compact, a social contract and covenant for a new political society. This remarkable document is an early example of democratic selfrule, and it became a model for our american founders, but often times overlooked is how the christian belief of these pilgrims, especially in their commitment to freedom of conscience, laid the groundwork for later debates about religious freedom and american colonies. I would like you to join us now for our Panel Discussion about the origins of religious liberty in america and its enduring importance to our democracy. Ghou, thewn emily director of the center for religious and Civil Society at the Heritage Foundation and an attorney that is defended religious freedom for the last 14 years will moderate our panel. She has worked on behalf of victims of religious Freedom Violations in southeast asia, the middle east and at the state Department Office of international freedom. Emily is a member of the Supreme Court bar and at the bar associations of both california and the district of columbia. The decent gentlemen, please welcome emily. Dr. Nd you very much for morrison to that excellent lecture. I would like to introduce dr. Pattison join us for this discussion. Thepattison serves as executive Vice President of the religious freedom is to do. He is dean of the Robertson School of government and a Research Fellow at Georgetown UniversityBerkeley Center for religious peace and world affairs. Addressed iss informed by the extent i do work throughout africa and central asia. And south asia. He has served in the government for more than 20 years as an officer and commander in the International Guard and is a white house fellow working for the director of u. S. Office of personnel management. Editor ofauthor and numerous books on religion and Foreign Policy and ethics. Onis published extensively religious freedom and democratization. In politicalis phd science from the university of california at santa barbara. Dr. Ghted to introduce patterson and dr. Morrison to join us for this conversation. Question thank you. Collects kup collects crafting a civil body politic, the Community Created a freedom ineligious law in the future. Dr. Morrison, would you elaborate on that statement . I would be happy to. The mayflower compact is not a constitution. Occasionally he would hear it is not. It is a protoconstitution though in that it creates that social contract, that civil body politic as they refer to themselves. That lovely and even intimate organic metaphor for a Political Committee, i did extract a promise from the signatories. They promise they will abide by those laws that they will make themselves, whether they be religious laws, civil laws, but there are not any laws laid down. There are not institutions of government created by that compact. That was my point of saying it creates a space in the future for religious liberty and their actively leaving england and the church of england, particularly headed by the king as being an active independence. It is eight declaration of religious independence, so that is what i meant by that. I fully agree with this as an act of religious independence and goes back to covenant theology in the reformation in the 1500s. As early as the mid1500s there are reformers that say we have ourselves from government led constitutions, state churches, and by the 15 80s in england, the predecessors of america druggist pilgrims, the separatists set up an independent congregation first in england and then in the netherlands. Part of thatle] separatist movement and what they do is they make a commitment among themselves and before god to set up a religious community with a cold one theyer accountable and hold each other together as a religious body. That is the basis for the compact and it is rooted in that theological commitment. In your lecture dr. Morrison you brought up the point of equality. Equality between passengers on the mayflower and the pilgrims, and then those who were not from the Pilgrim Community and help they were treated with a remarkable level of equality. Can you both elaborate on that further . Thank you. It is a remarkable thing when you look through signatories to that, and every adult male signed either for himself or as head of household. You see by their names, some of them you will see esquire them, mys, and one of 10th grade grandfather admitted to cambridge, for example. There are various classes represented among the passengers. As i mentioned in my remarks, many of the socalled strangers, the nonpilgrims were rough customers fleeing the law or creditors, but they are all treated as equals in this civil body politic, and there is subtle acknowledgment that they might not be members of the religious community or choose to come under the laws written in the future and i think there is an implication that they can themselves separate from that community. It is a remarkable thing. In 1620 when most of the world was a rigid class had rigid class system is the esquires and common folk and even lawbreakers among them, criminals fleeing england all had equal status civilly and that body politic that they are gritting. Equality isthat very important that this comes from ideas of the reformation. These people took very seriously the reformation idea about equality. Equality of citizens, and this is rooted in other parts of english history as well. Go back to the magna carta. They took it very seriously. These are people who are seeking order and liberty so that they can orient their lives based on their faith commitments and they do not impose that on their fellow men. Good inlower compact is theological commitments but it is also a prudential document so there is not anarchy when they land in new england, but they do this anyway when they are not imposing a faith tradition, their lease on the others. They are recognizing the principle of citizenship equality with their fellow passengers. I would like to add one thing if i may. Plymouth is not philadelphia, pennsylvania, the radical egalitarianism of william penn, who will come just a few years later and formed his own proprietary colony in pennsylvania. Patterson has mentioned, we do not want to make too much of it but it is a remarkable thing in an age where there is this fairly rigid class structure is certainly throughout europe. Yes, and you also make the point in your lectures religious freedom, not mere toleration, is an American Innovation. Do you want to elaborate on that and how the mayflower compact led to that . On it forelaborate certain. I think there is a rich legacy of the compact and american constitutionalism. Not certainly is religious liberty laid out in it. The difference between liberty and toleration is the difference between the kinds of rights we believe people have. Religious liberty means that you have a natural, human rights to freely exercise, to freely leave and not leave, and to freely exercise your faith so long as it does not harm anyone else. Andration is different, that is what was around the globe, the most liberal policy. Toleration means the government will tolerate you so long as it sees fit, and it often implies as it did in england and established church, a state rch as dr. Pattison patterson alluded to and elsewhere. If there is a state church you will pay some kind of penalty, silver some kind of civil disability if you are not part of that National Church or state church. If you were jewish in england, no matter how bright you werent you could not go to the two statesponsored universities. Andhad to either convert profess to be or sincerely be an anglican or you had to go to some dissenting academy. That is what toleration means. The government will tolerate you and it is more like a civil rights, like a drivers license the government issues and the government can take back. Religious liberty is that natural human rights no government can take away from you and i do think the compact and documents that follow create a space for that but the compact does not explicitly guarantee that in a natural right terms. We might even think of the declaration of independence as an inheritor of this space for freedom that the may pact mayflower compact begins to sketch out. Dr. Patterson, do you want to comment on the nature of religious liberty as an American Innovation . I will make two points relate to the mayflower compact. They both have to do with statements earlier in the compact that are some of the language of the day that this is happening in the name of god to advance the gospel. These are important points from a religious liberty standpoint. At the first one is this. The other type of colonies being placed in the new world, whether they were portuguese or especially spanish, impose christianity by the edge of the sword and what is so different in the english colonies is that there is not the imposition of christianity by the sword. The pilgrims in particular and people who come after them like Roger Williams intend to share the gospel with the native americans, but they do not do it at the point of the sword. Plymoutht is a plantation, pennsylvania, or elsewhere, most of these religious entities set up in the colonial area have a right of exit. People who come into the community may have to follow the covenant of the community, but they can freely leave. No one forces them to stay there. They can go back to england, somewhere else. Thisis a big principal in aa where toleration was leading principle. The right to exit was a huge innovation rooted in what these pilgrims did. Thank you. Aboutf you have written religious pluralism as well. Can you describe how the mayflower compact and the creation of the civil body politic is informative to those interested in religious pluralism today . The pilgrims were separatist from the church of england, as dr. Morrison said, and amazingly the right to civil document that organizes a civil body politic, it is a social compact decades locke, rousseau, so it is rooted and a set of sociological components that predate the social compact theory because they had this notion rooted in covenant theology that individual believers in eight community can make decisions about the faith, and that there should not be a level of interference in the commitments someone makes or that a committee makes. The religious Community Becomes the congregational churches, and the Presbyterian Church a high level of decisionmaking at the autonomous level rooted in these types. Dr. Morrison, do you want to come in . Today we live in a religiously plural society. We live in a nation say. The plymouth plantation is not a state. It is not even formally a colony of england. They do not have a charter when they leave like william penn will bring with him. Pact, a legalis a document they get from the Virginia Company and it gives them title to certain lands. They are on their own hook, if you will. Forced as dr. Patterson mentioned to be throughand egalitarian the pressure of circumstances. That is one thing that makes this document so remarkable. Fly, writtenn the literally and the galley of the mayflower before they set foot at plymouth rock. Is there religious plurality among them . There is. There is a great deal of religious morality in pennsylvania as well. I think we can learn something from them about how to get along holding our deepest differences religiously, and i believe to this day polls indicate that 90 of us still believe in some kind of supreme being or higher power. Among the industrialized nations of the world america is still uniquely religious, and can we learn something from this experiment in plymouth i think we can. Legacy of is the constitutionalism passed down and subsequent documents hundreds of years later. Yet i think it is a remarkable production for its time and it circumstances. You also comment on how signing of the compact influenced that community itself, its behaviors, its conduct to the members of that community and others. I will turn that to dr. Patterson first. This sets the groundwork for a level of cooperation that has two happen. People. Only about 100 they are facing winter on cape cod. They had this long ship voyage. They missed harvest, and about half of them die that winter. Thes important to recognize mayflower compact is rooted in a set of worldview assumptions, and at the same time it is a desperate commitment. We have to Work Together or we will not survive this. This lays the groundwork for the type of colony over the next halfcentury, a place where there is a lot of individual equality. A place where there are not the types of religious restrictions. It is a place where Roger Rowlands goes when he needs to have a place to get away from the Massachusetts Bay colony. We know there are efforts to share the gospel with the american indians, so this really does set the groundwork for a model that is cooperative among citizens but not coercive. I think that is very well said. Weill only add very briefly have to keep in mind the Plymouth Colony is different from the Massachusetts Bay colony. Different leadership, a slightly different ethos. They have different ends, goals, and it is boston and the Massachusetts Bay colony that is the sort of powerhouse, and what becomes the colony of massachusetts and later the state of massachusetts. Winthrop, aby john different sort of man then elder brewster, William Bradford. He is a lawyer for one thing. He has a rather checkered career and Massachusetts Bay being deposed,overnor, being and being elected again as it is a literal fortunes go up and down and england. Massachusetts bay at the city of boston are kind of the powerhouse and literally tens of thousands of people come in waves from old england to new england. They tend to settled there. The Plymouth Colony is a smaller enterprise. That first and i believe compact is responsive of things to come later. We should remember that. When we speak of the [indiscernible]war we speak of things like that. There are different communities and themselves and strangers among them. Section, wouldng you like to comment on anything else we can learn as americans today from the mayflower compact that has perhaps been overlooked . If i make go first, i will try to be brief. I have alluded to the constitutional legacy of the mayflower compact and i do not want to make too much of it but when we look even at the structure of this document, with a preamble, not exactly we the undersignedf we the , and then a statement of purposes of their journey, and then the creation of that civil body politic, and then a kind of pledge at the end, a pledge of mutuality, and then the signatories, that should look familiar to americans even today, right . That looks like the declaration of independence in a sense. The federal constitution and a sense, and it might be a bit of a stretch to go from we the undersigned to we the people, but again sections of the document with a preamble, and identification, a statement of purpose is, the Political Community and a pledge of signatories, that is part of our dna, i would say. Chromosome is planted there at plymouth, and like physical dna in families, traits are inherited, arent they . Sometimes they lie dormant for a generation or two. Sometimes a grandchild is remarkably similar to a grandparent in features and things. That would be my parting remark about the mayflower compact. Dna, and political even though we are just a very small self funded and self generated community, religious and Political Community, that document as farreaching implications, vest reaching implications for american constitutional history. , andagree with that point we have to remember as we celebrate the 400 anniversary of the mayflower compact that the people who wrote the declaration of independence were about as far removed historically from the mayflower compact as you and i are removed from the civil war. It is 1. 5 centuries. Seen early on, one the framers of the declaration of independence and the constitution they cite as important in the genealogy of overstated,nnot be and it is important for americans. Great americans like abraham lincoln, Martin Luther king junior have done this. They have looked back in history and they have recognized how important the mayflower compact and the decisions early colonists made in setting the United States on a course that become standard notions of right, liberty, and the free exercise of religion. Againabout how different 1620 was then the setting up of spanish or portuguese colonies with high levels of slavery. Think about a different the experience was in plymouth but also in rhode island, the dutch colonies at debbie new york and new jersey. Massachusetts, virginia. Think about how different the 16 20s, 16 30s, 16 40s are, whether it is the english civil war about to commence or the 30 year war. There is a religious component to all of that violence. What difference the mayflower compact as to allow these individuals to decide to set up it is a very, very important seed in u. S. And in world history. Usthank you, for helping understand the origins of the mayflower compact and its continuing influence on our body politic today. As americans discuss what is happening in our country, it is important to look at Historical Documents like the mayflower compact and to see the legacy of the quality, the legacy of covenants we have with one another as we look forward. Thank you, both, very much. You are watching American History tv, all weekend every weekend on cspan3. American history tv on cspan3, exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. Coming up sunday at 6 00 p. M. Eastern on american artifacts, we explore Jfk Assassination records from the national archives, including iconic artifacts such as Lee Harvey Oswalds rifle, the socalled magic bullet and the original eight millimeter film of the assassination taken by abraham pruder. And at eight a virtual tour of the Ronald Reagan president ial library in california. Watch American History tv sunday on cspan3. Countless press stories this election youre focused on voters in the suburbs. Next on merrick in history tvs reel america, films made in the 1950s when suburbs experienced unprecedented growth. Crisis in levittown, pa. 19 50s from 1957. Located about 25 miles from philadelphia, levittown was the second of seven postworld war ii developments geared towards veterans. Levittown management prohibited the sale of homes directly to africanamericans, although they couldnt prohibit owners from doing so. The film examines attitudes of homeowners after a black family moves into the allwhite development. Also all the way home. 1957, the film dramatizes the prejudice and rumors that arise in a fictional white suburb when a black family is seen visiting a home with a for sale sign on the front lawn. And about one hour, a 1957 film, in the suburbs. Written by the film shows families with many children engaged in leisure activities at home, and the new hub of suburban activity, the shopping center. And in about 80 minutes, american look from 1958. The film