Graham R (Ed.) - Anarchism - A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas Volume One - From Anarchy to Anarchism (300 CE to 1939)

246 / ANARCHISM
love of someone she simply detests, to deceive and be a hypocrite, in short, to give
herself to a man or woman whom she despises. In which case it is only natural that it
will 1I0t be long before their household is beset by squabbling, friction and a thousand
other things and happenings to embitter the lives of both partners.
If they were free in their actions, this would not happen and they might enjoy
whatever culture our society of the future will have to offer. (Further reading: Jose
Moya, "Italians in Buenos Aires' Anarchist Movement: Gender, Ideology and Women's
Participation, 1890-1910," in Women, Getlder and Trans11ational Lives: Italian Workers of
the World, Toronto: University of Toronto, 2002, ed. D. Gabaccia and F. lacovetta)
70. Emma Goldman: Marriage (1897), Prostitution and Love (1910)
Free love had bee11 preached by various sexual radicals i11 the U11ited StatesJor some time, despite
repressive obscenity laws that were IIsed to proseCl/te and imprison its various advocates.
In 1876, the anarchist Ezra Heywood (1829- 1 893) published Cupid's Yokes
(princeton: Cooperative Publis/ling), in which he de110unced tIle i11stitution of marriage as
contrmy to wome11 'sfreedom. In 1877 he was arrested fo r distributing obscel1e material, a11d
was sel1tel1ced to two years i11 priso11. He co11tinued to fight for free speech a11d died il1 1893
shortly after completil1g al10ther two year Sel1te11ce for publishing articles on oral sex, sex edlIcatiOI1
al1d birth control. Ol1e of the articles had origil1ally beel1 publislJed il1 Lucifer, The
Light Bearer, by another al1archist, Moses Harmal1 (1830-1910), who was also imprisol1ed.
£1II111a GoldlllUII wus u great admirer of them both, meetil1g Harmal1 il1 1893, describil1g him
as a "courageous champiol1 offree motherhood and womal1 's ecol1omic and sexual emal1cipatioll
" (Living My Life, Vol. 1 , New York: Dover, 1970, page 219). She often wrote and spoke
abollt marriage al1d free love ill the years to follow. The following essay, "Marriage, " was
originally published in}uly 1897 in the Firebrand, al1 anarchist paper published by the Isaak
fa mily (who later published Voltairil1e de Cleyre's translation ofjeal1 Grave's Moribund Society
and Anarchy). It has recel1tly beel1 reprinted ill Emma Goldman: a documentary history
of the American years, ed. C. Falk, B. Patemal1, j. M. Moran (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 2003). The Firebrand was suppressed SOOI1 after the publication of Emma
Goldman's article, ostensibly for publishing a Walt Whitman poem.
AT ALL TIMES, AND IN ALL AGES, HAVE THE suppressed striven to break the chains of
mental and physical slavery. After thousands of noble lives have been sacrificed at the
stake and on the gallows, and others have perished in prisons, or at the merciless
hands of inquisitions, have the ideas of those brave heroes been accomplished. Thus
have religious dogmas, feudalism and black slavery been abolished, and new ideas,
more progressive, broader and dearer, have come to the front, and again we see poor