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19th Century
Voltairine de Cleyre
1866–1912 · Anarchism without adjectives
Freedom of the person, first and last.
De Cleyre came to anarchism through the Haymarket executions and became its most rigorous American essayist, refusing to impose one economic plan on the movement and calling hers anarchism without adjectives. She argued for direct action, women's economic independence and resistance to compulsory schooling, and taught herself to shoot after an attempt on her life.
Why it matters for freedom
She refused both the state's authority and the movement's fashion, arguing freedom of thought has no doctrine.
Who they stood against
the state, the church, and the courts that jailed her for speaking