"She didn’t commit to paper her ruminations on freedom: With human nature caged in a narrow space, whipped daily into submis sion, how can we speak of potentialities? The cardboard placards for the tumult and upheaval she incited might have said: “Don’t mess with me. I am not afraid to smash things up.” But hers was a struggle without formal declarations of policy, slogan, or credos. It required no party platform or ten point program. Walking through the streets of New York City, she and Emma Goldman crossed paths, but failed to recognize each other. When Hubert Harrison encountered her in the lobby of the Renaissance Casino after he delivered his lectures on “Marriage versus Free Love” for the Socialist Club, he noticed only that she had a pretty face and a big ass. Esther Brown never pulled a soapbox onto the corner of 135th Street and Lenox Avenue to make a speech about autonomy, the global reach of the color line, involuntary servitude, free motherhood, or the promise of a future world, but she well understood that the desire to move as she wanted was nothing short of treason."