Connor Toole

Located on the fourth floor of the Providence Public Library, the Special Collections department contains numerous collections on American history and popular culture. Spanning over a century of written material, the George C. Potter and Alfred M. Williams Memorial Collection on Irish Culture forms a significant part of the department. While the collection contains a number of nineteenth-and twentieth-century Irish literary texts, it is curiously bereft of information about the collection's first donor, the publisher and Providence Journal editor Alfred M. Williams. Who was Alfred M. Williams, and what did he contribute to Irish literature? This article will document the fascinating life of Alfred M. Williams, including his efforts to champion the rights of minority groups-particularly Irish immigrants-in America at a time of tremendous prejudice against ethnic minorities, and a relative lack of democracy in Rhode Island. It aims to provide a biography of Williams' life and work, with details of the people he met and descriptions of the Anglo-Irish writers he published, and to show how these individuals fit into the history of the Irish Literary Renaissance. Also known as the "Celtic Twilight," the Irish Literary Renaissance, was a nineteenth-century cultural movement that witnessed the rise of a literature distinct from that of Great Britain. This movement, born from a revival of interest in Ireland's Gaelic heritage (and the growth of Irish nationalism in the mid-eighteen-hundreds), saw the rise of talented poets and prose writers such as, all of whom were published by Williams when he was editor of the Providence Journal. 1 While the literature produced by this renaissance has withstood the test of time, and has been the subject of a number of collections and anthologies, those individuals who published, championed, and otherwise contributed to this literary movement are less well-known. What makes the story of Alfred Mason Williams and his efforts to publish Anglo-Irish literature in America memorable is twofold: first, it opens up a transatlantic connection that has not been considered in-depth-that is, Providence's local contribution to the Irish Literary Renaissance. Second, and of equal significance, a biographical exploration of Williams' publishing career shows that his literary engagement with Ireland intersected with (and enhanced) his efforts to better the circumstances of various marginalized groups in American society.

While the 19th century saw the extension of suffrage and otherwise sought to diminish the ethnic, political, and economic divisions that existed among minority groups in the United States, Rhode Island maintained societal and legal norms that actively excluded minority groups, particularly Irish Catholic immigrants, from exercising their rights as American citizens. Whether by ballot box or periodical, the Irish were constantly reminded of their second-class status living within an entrenched Anglo-Saxon Protestant Ascendency. Through a series of conflicts: physical, political, legal, and social, however, the social landscape of Rhode Island and its Irish inhabitants began to change from one of rebellion to acceptance. This paper seeks to explore the cultural landscape of 19th century Rhode Island and in particular the plight of Irish immigrants through the lens of several significant historical events and cultural products namely, the Dorr Rebellion and The Providence Journal. In doing so, this paper aims to show Rhode Island’s changing cultural landscape from one of marginalization and exclusion of ethnic minorities, specifically Irish Catholics, to toleration and acceptance of these groups.