Answer:
The phrase symbolizes the tools that can be used to threaten.
Explanation:
Mary Harris Jones, also known as Mother Jones, was a prominent activist during her lifetime. She worked as a schoolteacher and dressmaker. But after the Yellow fever epidemic hit her city and took away her family and her shop, she began organizing for the Knights of Labor and the United Mine worker.
She quotes that, "I am not afraid of the pen, or the scaffold, or the sword." This phrase symbolizes the tools that can be used to threaten her to stop her work. With pen, someone can write about her, with a sword someone can kill her, or with the scaffold, she could be executed.
But she asserts that she is not afraid and she will continue to spread the truth.
