James Colton

James Colton (1860 – 5 August 1936), also known as Jim Colton, was a Scottish anarchist, trade unionist and coal miner. He married the anarchist activist and writer Emma Goldman in 1925, so that she could obtain British citizenship.

James Colton
Colton c. 1925
Born	1860 Scotland
Died	5 August 1936 (aged 75–76) Amman Valley, Wales
Other names	Jim Colton
Occupation	Activist, coal miner
Known for	Marriage of convenience to Emma Goldman
Spouse(s)	Emma Goldman ​ (m. 1925)​

Biography

Tabernacle chapel and cemetery; Colton's resting place

Colton was born in Scotland, in 1860, the son of 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.[1] Colton was self-educated and this led to him identifying with libertarian thought.[2] He first met Goldman when she was giving a speaking tour in Edinburgh in 1895.[3]

Shortly after the death of his first wife and knowing that Goldman needed British citizenship, after she had been deported from the United States in 1919, he proposed that they should marry.[1] They married on 27 June 1925, Goldman's 58th birthday,[4] when he was aged 65; the couple were not friends and did not intend to live together.[5] Despite this, they occasionally maintained contact via letters.[1][2] The marriage was reported in The New York Times, the following year.[6]

After the death of Goldman's lifelong lover and friend Alexander Burkman, Colton, who was sick himself, wrote Goldman a letter expressing his sympathies.[4]

Colton died of cancer on 5th August 1936;[1] he was buried in the Tabernacle cemetery at Glanamman.[7] Goldman's last letter to Colton did not reach him before his death.[1]

References

1. Walters, Huw (2003). "Emma Goldman, the Queen of Anarchy: The Carmarthenshire Connection". Carmarthenshire Antiquary. 39: 114–121.
2. "Emma Goldman and James Colton papers". Archives Hub. Retrieved 2020-08-03.
3. Goldman, Emma (2006). Vision on Fire: Emma Goldman on the Spanish Revolution. California: AK Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-904859-57-4.
4. 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.
5. Falk, Candace (2019). Love, Anarchy, & Emma Goldman: A Biography. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. p. 273. ISBN 978-1-9788-0647-4.
6. "Goldman Romance Covered 20 Years; Anarchist Leader Married to Colton, a Miner in Wales, After a Long Separation". The New York Times. 1926-11-21. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-08-05.
7. Winn, Christopher (2009). I Never Knew That About Wales. New York: Random House. p. 65. ISBN 978-1-4070-2823-1.