Early Modern (1450 CE - 1800 CE)
Women’s Participation in Riots over the Price of Sugar, February 1792
This fragment from a memoir by Charles Alexandre shows the anger of women when confronted by a sugar shortage. They readily attributed the shortage to hoarding by greedy merchants. This document also shows the new importance of colonial products such as sugar and coffee.
Advertisement for Sale of Newly Arrived Africans
This image is of an advertisement for a nearly equal number of adults and children from Sierra Leone at a Charleston Auction.
Etta Palm D’Aelders, "Discourse on the Injustice of the Laws in Favor of Men, at the Expense of Women" (30 December 1790)
Like many female activists, the Dutch woman Etta Palm D’Aelders did not explicitly articulate a program for equal political rights for women, though that would no doubt have been her ultimate aim.
Women's Petition to the National Assembly
This petition was addressed to the National Assembly sometime after the October 1789 march of women on Versailles.
Women Testify Concerning Their Participation in the October Days (1789)
The commission investigating the events of October 1789 also interrogated many women who had participated.
Stanislas Maillard describes the Women’s March to Versailles (5 October 1789)
Stanislas Maillard was a national guardsman known for having taken a leading role in the attack on the Bastille. In 1790 he testified before a commission established by the court in Paris to investigate the events of October 1789.
A Woman’s Cahier
This grievance was signed by a certain Madame B*** B*** whose identity is unknown. The provenance appears to be Normandy. Another version of this text, located and republished in the late nineteenth century, is signed by Marie, veuve de Vuigneras, also from Normandy.
Madame de Beaumer, Editorial, Journal des Dames (March 1762)
Madame de Beaumer (d. 1766) was the first of three women editors of the Journal des Dames, a newspaper founded in Paris in 1759 to encourage women to write seriously.
Article from the Encyclopedia: "Woman"
The article "Woman" was written by four contributors who considered the question from four angles: medicine and the history of opinions about women’s nature; writings about women’s place in the state and marriage; the social differences between men and women; and women’s legal status in different
Military Suppression of Prairial
The Prairial insurrection of Year III (May 1795) would prove to be among the last major episodes of popular activism during the Revolution, due in part to the Convention’s forceful use of National Guard units, leading to the arrest of many activists and the execution of several popular leaders.