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Mary Wollstonecraft's early life
Born in April 27 1759, her dad was abusive and her mom was submissive and cold. When her mother died in 1780 she left her home and left her abusive parents behind. She convinced her sister to leave her abusive husband and live with her best friend Franny Blood. Together they lived independent lives and opened a school for girls which forwarded their mission of female empowerment. -
The start of Mary's Writing
After the school Mary opened with her friends failed Mary traveled to Ireland to become a governess. Mary moved to London a year later after she learned she hated domestic work. While in Ireland she wrote Original Stories from Real Life and The Female Reader. The two books she wrote both were children education books, she also wrote her first novel called Mary. -
March to Versailles
Women of France grew tired of the high prices of bread that made, as a result they marched to the Palace of the King and Queen going through rain for 12 miles. Soon they were backed up by 15,000 soldiers, and a few 1,000 citizen railed up by Marquis de Lafayette. Once the crowd arrived there was a confusion when the king declared he would agree to the new Declaration, after hearing this some of the crowd returned to pairs. The rest of the crowd forced the King and Queen back to Paris with them. -
Movement for political rights
Women started to move more and more for political rights by publishing newspaper demanding for full political rights soon small groups started to form around the gains of political rights for women. The newspapers were published by Marquis de Condorcet arguing that women deserve the same rights as men. A female group surrounding Marquis de Condorcet started popping up the group was called the Cercle Social. The Cercle Social moved toward women having not just political, but full equal rights. -
Declaration of Rights of Women
The strongest political was the Declaration of Rights of Woman modeled after the Declaration of Rights of Man. This document was structured in format and langue in the same way the Declaration of Rights of Man highlighting how women were not included. the writer of this new document was written by Marie Gouze, but she wrote under the name Olympe de Gouges and while this document didn't get much support it did make her quite infamous. Gouze was later sent to death for a counter-revolution. -
Mary's exposure to the French revolution
After moving to London Mary worked as and assistant and journalist for the Analytical review. In her time working there Mary ideas became more radical and similar to enlightenment ideas occurring in France. Mary would go to write A Vindication of the Rights of Man, in which she attacked the Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke which attacked the Jacobin's club. Later Mary would put out her most well known work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. -
Political Clubs
A minority of women activist made political clubs based on educating women politically. The best known of these clubs was Society of Revolutionary Republican Women as this platform educated and tried to be a platform were women could vocalize the thoughts on the current state of politics. Male revolutionaries would oppose the ideas of women gaining any rights through a printing press. Using the printing press they would spread ideas on why women shouldn't have rights and make counterclaims -
Murder of Jean-Paul Marat
Jean-Paul Marat owned a printing press and would publish very radical ideas on his newspapers. One day Jean-Paul Marat was in his bath tub when Charlotte Corday sneaked into his house and stabbed him in the chest. Corday stated in her trial "I killed one man to save 100,000". Jean-Paul Marat death was then depicted into a painting making him look divine like. -
Mary's sorrow
Mary was fascinated by the revolution in France and left London to explore France. While in France she wrote An Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution which praised the ideas of the revolution, but looked down on the violence. In France Mary would meet n American businessman, Gilbert Imlay, how she had her daughter Fanny with. When Mary and Fanny reunited with Gilbert who had taken on a actress, Mary would attempt suicide twice after the news. -
Mary's love
Mary would return to London heart broken with her daughter. In London she would meet a radical liberal philosopher named William Godwin. Mary had resolved that she would seduce William in which William would carefully note down each of sexual encounters with Mary. While neither believed in marriage the two decided to get married. Mary would the bare her second child in which she would die ten days after giving birth, her last words were that Godwin was the kindest and best man in the world.