Providence Combination of 1640
| Providence Combination of 1640 | |
|---|---|
Copy of signatures on Combination | |
| Date effective | August 6 [O.S. July 27], 1640 |
| Superseded | March 24, 1649 [O.S. March 14, 1648] |
| Author(s) | Robert Coles, Chad Browne, William Harris, and John Warner |
| Signatories | 39 male and female inhabitants of Providence |
| Purpose | To establish civil government by arbitration, elected officials, and liberty of conscience |
| Full text | |
| The Federal and State Constitutions/Plantation agreement at Providence at Wikisource | |
The Providence Combination of 1640, referred to then as the Combination & Plantation Agreement, established a civil government for the Providence Plantation, which encompassed what is now Providence and parts of Cranston and Pawtucket in Rhode Island. This document stands as the first governmental instrument in Western history to explicitly mention "liberty of conscience."
The Combination—so named because it "combined" the inhabitants into a unified civil body—brought several groundbreaking advancements to colonial governance, including a democratic government based on arbitration, the formal acknowledgment of liberty of conscience as a fundamental right, and the unprecedented inclusion of women as signatories to a political agreement.