THE FIRST THANKSGIVING The hundred or so Pilgrims and other who left England in 1620 passengers aboard the Mayflower arrived Plymouth, in what is now Massachusetts. Before at in the ship's ma cabin going ashore, the forty-one male passengers assembled where they wrote the Mayflower Compact. Under this agreement, everyone, Pil grims and non-Pilgrims alike, would be governed by the same laws. All those pre- sent pledged to observe the Compact.