In this piece she joined many other revolutionary thinkers in condemning slavery in French territories. In 1788 she wrote a forceful abolitionist essay entitled, “Réflexions sur les hommes négres” (Reflections on Black Men).
Although her loyalty and sympathies clearly lay with the more moderate Girondists, simply put, she was an idealist who fought fiercely not only for women’s rights but against the institution of slavery in the French colonies. She was perceived as too radical by the moderates, and as a Royalist by the extreme left, probably because she dedicated the Declaration of the Rights of Woman to Queen Marie Antoinette. To highlight the confusing politics of the French Revolution, Gouges was hated on all sides. It was virtually identical other than its inclusion of women as citoyennes (citizens). When the “Declaration of the Rights of Man” became the preamble of the French Constitution in 1789, Gouges wrote her own version that same year. She was a social reformer and playwright who advocated for all those she saw as under represented including orphaned children, and women (especially unwed women). Olympe de Gouges, originally Marie Gouze was born on in Montauban (Occitanie region of southwestern France) and died on Novemin Paris.
By José-Louis Bocquet, author, Catel, illustrator.
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