International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest

Extract

Ezra Hervey Heywood was an American speaker, writer, publisher, and activist associated with the abolitionist, labor, feminist, and individualist movements. His advocacy of free speech on sexual issues earned him three arrests and two terms of imprisonment under the Comstock laws. A graduate of Brown University, Heywood joined the abolitionist movement in 1858, and was immediately acclaimed as a speaker. His addresses were frequently reprinted in The Liberator. During the Civil War, however, his adherence to non-resistance became controversial, and controversy marked the rest of his career. Heywood met Josiah Warren in 1863, and turned his attention to economics and labor issues. In 1867 he was among the founders of the Worcester Labor Reform League, and in 1868 was a delegate to the National Labor Union. That year he also published The Labor Party , which proposed mortgage-based currency similar to William B. Greene's mutual money. In 1869 Heywood joined Greene and a group of veteran reformers to form the New England Labor Reform League, which carried on radical propaganda for 25 years. The NELRL was followed by other leagues with even broader scope, but all were essentially vehicles for public discussion rather than conventional unions. Heywood established the Co-operative Publishing Company, publishing Greene's Mutual Banking and a number of his own works. Heywood's emphasis ... log in or subscribe to read full text