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James Colton

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James Colton
Colton c. 1925
Born(1860-05-12)12 May 1860
Govan, Scotland
Died5 August 1936(1936-08-05) (aged 76)
Glanamman, Wales
Occupation(s)Activist, coal miner
Known forMarriage of convenience with Emma Goldman
Spouse
Emma Goldman
​
(m. 1925)​

James Colton (12 May 1860 – 5 August 1936) was a Scottish anarchist, trade unionist and coal miner, who spent most of his life in Wales. He was known for arranging a marriage of convenience with the anarchist activist and writer Emma Goldman in 1925, so that she could obtain British citizenship.

Biography

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Tabernacle chapel and cemetery, where Colton is buried

Colton was born in Govan, Scotland, on 12 May 1860,[1] the son of Arthur Colton, a stonemason. As a child, he moved to Penarth in Wales. He first worked as a baker in Upper Boat, then later moved to Glanamman in the Amman Valley, where he became a miner at the Gelliceidrim Colliery.[2] Colton was self-educated and this led to him identifying with libertarian thought.[3] He first met Emma Goldman when she was giving a speaking tour in Edinburgh in 1895.[4]

Shortly after the death of Colton's first wife and knowing that Goldman needed British citizenship, after she had been deported from the United States in 1919, he proposed a marriage of convenience.[2] They married on 27 June 1925, Goldman's 58th birthday,[5] when he was aged 65. The couple were not friends and did not intend to live together.[6] Despite this, they occasionally maintained contact via letters.[2][3] The marriage was reported in The New York Times the following year.[7]

After the death of Goldman's lifelong lover and friend Alexander Berkman, Colton, who was sick himself, wrote Goldman a letter expressing his sympathies.[5]

Colton died of cancer on 5 August 1936.[2] he was buried in the Tabernacle cemetery at Glanamman.[8] Goldman's last letter to Colton did not reach him before his death.[2]

References

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  1. ^ Ancestry.com. Scotland, Select Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.
  2. ^ a b c d e Walters, Huw (2003). "Emma Goldman, the Queen of Anarchy: The Carmarthenshire Connection". Carmarthenshire Antiquary. 39: 114–121.
  3. ^ a b "Emma Goldman and James Colton papers". Archives Hub. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  4. ^ Goldman, Emma (2006). Vision on Fire: Emma Goldman on the Spanish Revolution. California: AK Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-904859-57-4.
  5. ^ a b Avrich, Paul; Avrich, Karen (2012). Sasha and Emma: The Anarchist Odyssey of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 331, 385. ISBN 978-0-674-06767-7.
  6. ^ Falk, Candace (2019). Love, Anarchy, and Emma Goldman: A Biography. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. p. 273. ISBN 978-1-9788-0647-4.
  7. ^ "Goldman Romance Covered 20 Years; Anarchist Leader Married to Colton, a Miner in Wales, After a Long Separation". The New York Times. 21 November 1926. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  8. ^ Winn, Christopher (2009). I Never Knew That About Wales. New York: Random House. p. 65. ISBN 978-1-4070-2823-1.
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