Discover why most of the Mayflower's male passengers signed an historic agreement, in this video adapted from AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: The Pilgrims. In September 1620, religious dissenters, called "Separatists" by their detractors, were joined aboard the Mayflower by other English colonists recruited by the project's financial backers who did not share the Separatists' religious zeal. After making landfall 66 days later and with tensions threatening to divide the passengers, a social compact was drafted and signed in which all signers agreed to submit to the government created, officers elected, and laws drafted.