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The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the colonists, later together known to history as the Pilgrims, who crossed the Atlantic aboard the Mayflower. Almost half of the colonists were part of a separatist group seeking the freedom to practice Christianity according to their own determination and not the will of the English Church.[citation needed] It was signed on November 11, 1620 (OS)[1] by 41 of the ship’s more than one hundred passengers,[2] in what is now Provincetown Harbor near Cape Cod

The Indian Massacre of 1622 occurred in the Colony of Virginia, in what is now United States of America, on Friday, March 22, 1622. As John Smith relates in his History of Virginia, the Indians “came unarmed into our houses with deer, turkeys, fish, fruits, and other provisions to sell us”.[1] Suddenly the Indians grabbed any tools or weapons available to them and killed any English settlers that were in sight, including men, women and children of all ages. Chief Opechancanough led a coordinated series of surprise attacks of the Powhatan Confederacy that killed 347 people, or a fourth of the English population of Jamestown.[2]

Jamestown was the site of the first successful English settlement in North America in 1607, and was the capital of the Colony of Virginia. Although Jamestown was spared due to a timely last-minute warning, many of the smaller settlements along the James River were attacked. In addition to killing settlers, the Powhatan burned houses and crops. Many of the smaller settlements were abandoned after the attacks.

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