ution and imprisonment of eight anarchists in Chicago in 1886 sparked anarchism's growth in the United States. The "Haymarket Eight" flourished anarchists such as Voltairine de Cleyre and Lucy Parsons. Parsons was born into slavery and later became an anarchist and an ardent speaker and working class rebel; the Chicago police labeled Parsons, "...more dangerous than a thousand rioters."
             Although the word anarchism is understood by many in its classic sense (that defined by dictionaries and by anarchists of history), the word often seems to be misused or misunderstood. Anarchism, because of the threat it imposes upon established authority, has been historically, and is still, misused by power holders as violence and chaos. The claim that anarchism is chaos was refuted long ago by Alexander Berkman when he wrote:
             "I must tell you, first of all, what anarchism is not. It is not bombs, disorder, or chaos. It is not robbery or murder. It is not a war of each against all. It is not a return to barbarianism or to the
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