Viroqua Daniels (1859–1942), later Viroqua Daverkosen, was an

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

writer in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Early life

Daniels was born on December 4, 1859, to Sylvester Daniels and Mary (Lumley) Daniels in Tipton, Iowa, the third of five children. When she was sixteen years old, she moved to her family's

homestead Homestead may refer to: *Homestead (buildings), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses *Homestead (unit), a unit of measurement equal to 160 acres *Homestead principle, a legal concept th ...

Northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...

, becoming a

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer mig ...

in the mountains. At age nineteen, she was in a wagon accident, hitting her head on the

steering wheel A steering wheel (also called a driving wheel (UK), a hand wheel, or simply wheel) is a type of steering control in vehicles. Steering wheels are used in most modern land vehicles, including all mass-production automobiles, buses, light and ...

after her skirt caught in the

brake A brake is a mechanical device that inhibits motion by absorbing energy from a moving system. It is used for slowing or stopping a moving vehicle, wheel, axle, or to prevent its motion, most often accomplished by means of friction. Background ...

; the injury led to

chronic illness A chronic condition is a health condition or disease that is persistent or otherwise long-lasting in its effects or a disease that comes with time. The term ''chronic'' is often applied when the course of the disease lasts for more than three mo ...

Activity and views

In contrast with her anarchist contemporaries, who welcomed the revolutionary potential for self-governance in the

United States Declaration of Independence The United States Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen States of America, is the pronouncement and founding document adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at Pennsylvania State House ...

, Daniels considered it a trap to sucker fools into dying in a war fought for the wealthy to avoid taxes. She self-described as an Anarcho-Communist. When the publishers of the anarchist publication '' Discontent'' were arrested under the Comstock laws in September 1901, Daniels supported the publication on the basis of

freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...

. Between the mid-1880s and 1910, Daniels met Sigismund Danielewicz, who became either her close friend or romantic partner. A 1919 report by the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...

includes Daniels' writing in the '' Boston Traveler'' about

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

: Daniels was additionally an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

Publications

Daniels contributed writing and poetry to the anarchist publications '' The Firebrand'', ''

Free Society ''Free Society'' (1895–1897 as ''The Firebrand''; 1897–1904 as ''Free Society'') was a major Anarchism, anarchist newspaper in the United States at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries."''Free Society'' was the pri ...

'', ''Why?'',

Mother Earth Mother Earth may refer to: *The Earth goddess in any of the world's mythologies *Mother goddess *Mother Nature, a common personification of the Earth and its biosphere as the giver and sustainer of life Written media and literature *Mother Earth ...

, and ''The Dawn''.

Later life and death

An 1898 health crisis led Daniels to move to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. Near the turn of the century, she married Richard Daverkosen and had one son, Hubert, born in 1900. She died in San Francisco in November 1942 and is buried in Lake City, California.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Daniels, Viroqua 1942 deaths 1859 births Anarchist writers People from Tipton, Iowa Writers from Iowa American atheists 19th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 19th-century American women writers 20th-century American women writers American anarchists