Saints and Strangers

The Pilgrims never identified themselves as "Pilgrims"—it is a term later historians chose to use. The people we know as the Pilgrims referred to themselves as "Saints" (in the Old Testament sense of "chosen of God" rather than any modern, martyred sense).

The "Strangers" were English people who were not Separatists, and some of whom, like the famous Captain Miles Standish, were Anglican. The tension between Saints and Strangers resulted in the landmark Mayflower Compact, the first democratic instrument created by colonists in America.

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