8.2.1

Discuss the significance of the Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights, and the Mayflower Compact.
             The Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights and the Mayflower Compact had different significances. The Magna Carta was signed in 1215 by king John. The Magna Carta (The "Great Charter" of England) marked a step forward in the development of a constitutional government in England. The Magna Carta later became a model for colonists who approved of the document's guarantees of legal and political rights. The Magna Carta granted freedom of religion. The document set taxation limitations on trade and merchant laws. The Magna Carta was revised many times and eventually led to the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679. The Habeas Corpus Act states "no free man shall be imprisoned . . . except by lawful judgment of peers (jury trial) or by the law of the land. The English Bill of Rights, signed in 1689, by Queen Mary and her Dutch husband, William of Orange. The document guaranteed that citizens had certain basic rights, including freedom of religion, and that every three years there would be a parliamentary election in which the people voted for their representatives. This bill established the idea that the crown took power from the parliament, which was elected by citizens. The Mayflower Compact drafted on November 21, 1620 onboard the Mayflower was the first plan of self-government ever put into force by the people in the colonies. The document was signed by 41 of the male passengers aboard the Mayflower. The compact solved the fear among the passengers that some members might leave and settle elsewhere on their own. The compact bound the signers into a body politic for the purpose of forming a government and pledged them to abide by any laws and regulations that would later be established. This compact was not a constitution; it was an adaptation of the usual church covenants, of the time, to a civil situation.


More Information:

   1.    Encyclopedia Britannica DVD - 1999 edition


Recommended Books:

   1.    The American Journey: Building a Nation
          by Joyce Appleby, Alan Brinkley, James McPherson, and National Geographic Society