Engraving entitled: The pilgrims signing the compact on board the Mayflower, November 11th, 1620. The Pilgrims are shown below deck. The Mayflower Compact was an agreement reached by the Pilgrims on the ship the Mayflower in 1620, just before they landed at Plymouth Rock. The Mayflower Compact bound them to live in a civil society according to their own laws. It remained the fundamental law of their colony of Plymouth until the colony was absorbed into Massachusetts in the late seventeenth century. 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. The first democratic document written in America.