Year: 2017

The Sex Question

Voltairine De Cleyre, “The Woman’s National Liberty Union” (1890)

August 10, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE WOMAN’S NATIONAL LIBERAL UNION Mr. Editor:—Hereafter let it not be said that the women of American are behind their brothers in the work of freeing the country from superstition’s shackles. The most radical organization in the United States, so far as the Church is concerned, was born in Washington D. C., the 24th of last month. And that organization is founded by women, officered by women, and will do its principal worth through women. It is the first and only national English-speaking body in these State of American which has the courage of its convictions, and openly declared its […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Joseph A. Labadie, “The Meaning of Anarchy” (1896)

August 10, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
The Meaning of Anarchy. This is a good time, it seems, to enter a protest. You have heard, no doubt, the expression of being killed by kindness. Well, I am not exactly being killed by kindness, but am being put in a false light by friends and foes alike. J. T. Small of Provincetown, Mass., says I am “one of the ablest exponents” of Anarchism; Professor Raymond, of Detroit, calls me “one of the most intelligent philosophical Anarchists in the country”; Rev. E. J. Riggs, of Provincetown, asserts that I am “the high-cockalorum of philosophical Anarchism”; Dr. Maryson declares that […]
Anarchist Beginnings

J. Wm. Lloyd, “A Free Socialist” (1895)

August 10, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
My statement that henceforth I was no Anarchist, but a Free Socialist, was intended to refer to my public profession. Having stated that my view of Anarchism was that it was the doctrine “that the invasion of one human being by another was in the highest degree wrong, foolish, dangerous, and inexpedient—that this was Anarchism and this only,” and having, in conclusion, stated that my renunciation of the name Anarchist did “not mean any change of views,” it, of course, follows that, although I reject the name Anarchist, I, in my heart, still regard myself as one.

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The Sex Question

Susan H. Wixon, “When Womanhood Awakes” (1890)

August 10, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
WHEN WOMAN HOOD AWAKES. (Read at the Woman’s National Liberal Convention, Washington, D.C., February, 24, 1890.) No more shall error ’round her play In fitful moods and clouds of grey; Or cruel fancies crush her down Where demons wait and furies frown, —When Womanhood awakes. No more shall bigots turn and rave, A ranting yet a cringing slave, At truth who, in her garments white, Stands facing ever to the right, —When Womanhood awakes. No more shall sisters turn aside, With haughty tread and sullen pride, From those who walk in clearer light, Whose keener vision sees the right, —When […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Steven T. Byington, “Anarchist Labels” (1903)

August 10, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
ANARCHIST LABELS I think Comrade Morton speaks inaccurately when he says Tucker and his disciples have popularized the notion that commercialists are the only “philosophical Anarchists.” I tried a while ago to find out the origin of the sect name “philosophical Anarchist,” which I didn’t like. I wrote an open letter to Liberty, asking who could help me to the information. Tucker, in comment on my letter, said he didn’t like the name and had never used it; when it was proved that he had used it once at least, he said it was a case of “seen too oft, […]
Anarchist Beginnings

Dyer D. Lum, “Evolution and Revolution” (1886)

August 10, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
For Lucifer. Evolution or Revolution Many of your Radical friends are loud in their denunciation of revolutionary agencies. Evolution they hold to be a peaceful process, and the exact opposite of revolution. They would “educate the people” to the desired state of intelligence as “the bettor way.” In dissenting from this rose-colored view of human progress I affirm that revolutionary efforts have been the result of evolutionary processes. The fifteenth century, in which we had the rebirth of intellectual activity had its roots in preceding centuries and was revolutionary because it was opposed by established modes of thought. Luther in […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “Kent and Cleveland” (1888)

August 9, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
In the beautiful blush of the first autumn days our friends in Kent gave a course of lectures for the enlightenment of the believers of Kent and all the country “which compasseth it round about.” That noble exponent of the philosophy of Freethought, Rev. J. H. Burnham, with your scribe, were the speakers of the occasion; and, what with the favoring influence of golden weather, attentiv audiences, a splendidly organized working force, due mainly to the untiring exertions of the energetic secretary, Marius Heighton, the venerable president, Mr. Joseph Heighton, and such earnest workers as L. G. Reed, A. D. […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “Sex Slavery” (1890)

August 9, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
[two_third] Sex Slavery A Lecture Delivered by Voltairine de Cleyre before Unity Congregation, Philadelphia. Night in a prison cell! A chair, a bed, a small washstand, four blank walls, ghastly in the dim light from the corridor without, a narrow window, barred and sunken in the stone, a grated door! Beyond its hideous iron latticework, within the ghastly walls, — a man! An old man, gray-haired and wrinkled, lame and suffering. There he sits, in his great loneliness, shut in front all the earth. There he walks, to and fro, within his measured space, apart from all he loves! ‘There, […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “The Drama of the Nineteenth Century” (1888)

August 9, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
THE DRAMA OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. BY VOLTAIRINE de CLEYRE. The passions of men are actors, events are their motions, all history is their speech. In the long play of the ages a human being sometimes becomes an event; a nation’s passion takes a personnel. Such beings are the expression of the gathered mind-force of millions. He only who keeps himself aloof from all feeling can remain the spectator of the hour. All that humanity which is held within the beating, coiling, surging tides of passion, it has no individuality; it sinks its personality to become a vein in the […]
The Sex Question

Voltairine de Cleyre, “State, Nature and Art” (1888)

August 9, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur
God ought to be a Protestant. I couldn’t help thinking so the day I visited the Philadelphia House of Correction; and if anyone has the patience to hear me out, I think he will agree with me before I conclude this narrativ. There is a perfect anomaly at the gate of this institution—a civil policeman (though that is not the reason God ought to be a Protestant. Civility is ordinarily incompatible with a blue coat trimmed with brass buttons). This gentleman—I am glad to giv him the title—displayed no unnecessary pomp or patronizing air, as he showed us the way […]