Narratives of a Heroic Founder

The traditional narrative of the founding of Providence is anchored to Williams. At the dedication ceremony of the monument, many speakers used rhetoric that fit within the framework of this dominant narrative, constructing and glorifying Williams as a leader of religious and political thought. Many stakeholders exhibited a significant pride in being able to claim Williams as a local hero who made significant national contributions. The Mayor of Providence John F. Collins said in his dedication speech that “we take local pride in him.” [1] Other speakers echoed a similar sentiment, emphasizing the lasting impact Williams had on democracy. Thomas P. Hazard, the treasurer of the state of Rhode Island, praised Williams for being “the father of the first state in the world to make religious freedom its cornerstone of government.”[2] A professor of history from Wesleyan University, Samuel H. Brockunier, argued that Williams has “become a symbol of a great national ideal and constitutional right…[and] is increasingly venerated as the earliest fathers of American democracy.”[3] Many speakers connected pride in Williams’ accomplishments to pride in Providence. To them, Williams represented the best of Providence, a hero deserving of innumerable recognition. 

The monument space implicitly reinforces this narrative by an explicit lack of critical engagement with the complex history about the founding of Providence. Adjacent to the monument, two plaques provide general information: one containing information about the design and installment process of the monument and the other identifying the buildings that can be seen from the terrace. The information on the plaque only describes the history of the park, not the city of Providence. By not including any historical information that would challenge the mythological rhetoric about Williams, the monument space perpetuates oversimplifications and glorifications. Fact is muted as are other stories that contest the image of Williams as a hero. The truth is that Williams alone did not found Providence. The Narragansett people had tended to the environment and lived in a self-sufficient, sovereign society, Moshassuck, for hundreds of years before the settlers’ boat came into contact with the land.

Without the strategic political relationship between the Narragansett and the early colonials, Providence, as we know it, would not exist. By heroizing and glorifying Williams alone without any physical acknowledgement of Indigenous contributions, the monument space silences complex histories.