I'm researching women in the US (primarily post 1865) who rejected nonviolence and advocated and/or participated in armed struggle, armed self defense, or militant direct action- all within the realm of social movements. I want these women in their own words. Where is the best place to find primary documents of these types of women? Here are some examples of women I've identified so far: Emma Goldman, Mary Harris 'Mother Jones', Bernadine Dohrn, Kathy Boudin, Judy Clark, Cathy Wilkerson, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Lucy Parsons, Voltairine de Cleyre, Marie Equi, Angela Davis, Kathleen Cleaver...others?
Any secondary sources as guides would be much appreciated as well.
Hello there. This is a great topic. There is a wealth of knowledge and first-hand documents out on the internet for many if not all of the women you mentioned. Here are some generally good places to try for more information, hopefully this will provide a good start on your research:
I used to work at Freedom Archives (Link Texthttp://freedomarchives.org) and they have audio recordings of progressive political material from the early 60’s up. There would definitely be some relevant material for you there. You can search their online catalog and find material. There is a lot of backlog material so it might be better to contact sele@freedomarchives.org or claude@freedomarchives.org and ask for their assistance. They can make copies of the material and mail it to you.
Harvard’s Schlessinger Library (Link Texthttp://www.radcliffe.edu/schles/collections_overview.php) is focused on the history of women in America and is open to the public for research. They have a large collection of primary documents .
The book: The American sisterhood: writings of the feminist movement from colonial times to the present. By Wendy Martin ISBN: 0060442344
The Virtual Library Women’s History has a good set of links that seem worth browsing through: Link Texthttp://www.iisg.nl/w3vlwomenshistory/vlwhgeo.html#unitedstates
The Lucy Parsons Center Radical Bookstore is a collective here in Boston and they may be able to direct you to special materials they have available: Link Texthttp://www.lucyparsons.org/
The Anarchist Archives: Link Texthttp://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/index.html
Emma Goldman Papers: Link Texthttp://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/
AK Press has lots of primary source material available for purchase: Link Texthttp://www.akpress.org/
Mother Jones has a autobiography: Link Texthttp://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=62-0486436454-0 and a collection: http://libraries.cua.edu/MotherJones/
If you can get acess to the database JSTOR (many public libraries offer this), it has a excellent retroactive periodicals collection, including Students for a Democratic Society Papers, 1958-1970.
Best of luck!
In addition to the excellent resources listed by Lana, here are a few that might also be useful:
"Women and Social Movements 1820-1940" is a database published by Alexander Street Press that contains primary source material. If you have access to it (it's available through some university libraries), it's an excellent source. Even if you don't have access through a university library, however, you can access some of the documents through this link:
http://womhist.binghamton.edu/search.htm
The Labadie Collection at the University of Michigan (a radical history special collection) has a number of primary sources on women in social movements in the United States. Online you can access some photographs as well as some links to documents and extensive finding aids.
http://www.lib.umich.edu/spec-coll/labadie
Also, the filmmaker Lizzie Borden explored questions of violence as a political strategy used by women in her film "Born in Flames."
If you are interested, here's an entry on Lizzie Borden in GLBTQ: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture.
http://www.glbtq.com/arts/borden_l.html
And the University of Virginia's "Sixties Project" has some primary source material
http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Sixties.html