HomeMy WebLinkAboutMayflower 400th Anniversary_11.2019.
PROCLAMATION
WHEREAS, four hundred years ago, in 1620, the Mayflower Pilgrims, seeking religious
freedom and opportunity, became the first self-governing colony in the New World; and
WHEREAS, their small sailing ship, chartered by the English King was blown north by the
winter winds and forced to land in December of 1620 on the cold shores of New England, which
would become Plymouth, Massachusetts; and
WHEREAS, they had no laws to govern and no country to protect them, they wrote a self-
governing document, the Mayflower Compact, and pledged themselves to self-govern. The
Mayflower Compact represented the first written constitution in North America and our American
Constitution with its Bill of Rights stems from it; and
WHEREAS, half of the Pilgrims died that first winter and the survivors formed treaties with the
Native Americans and learned to grow crops, and they celebrated the harvest with a meal of
thanksgiving which we still remember today as our Thanksgiving Holiday.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DALE ROSS, MAYOR OF THE CITY OF GEORGETOWN, TEXAS,
do hereby proclaim, November 12, 2019 as
THE 400TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MAYFLOWER LANDING DAY