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Olympe de Gouges

Back in the day on November 3rd, 1793, French playwright and feminist Olympe de Gouges was sent to the scaffold to meet her death. As women were central to the drama of the French Revolution, Gouges emerged in the years that followed as a voice that articulated the shortcomings of the sweeping changes in society. Perhaps her best known polemic, “Declaration of the Rights of Women,” was penned in 1791 and argued passionately for equality of the sexes. Modeling itself in the language of an earlier declaration reserved exclusively for men, the text called for women’s education, political enfranchisement through suffrage, and the realignment of the prevailing form of marriage. Gouges, who also advocated for the abolition of slavery in France’s colonies, had other democratic impulses that rattled her detractors. She faced the guillotine for another tome that suggested form of governance, whether it be republican, federalist, or constitutional monarchy, be put before the people via plebiscite.

Seated in power, Maximilien Robespierre wanted Gouges beheaded as her mind carried many, much too many dangerous thoughts.

For Uprising, this is your truth professa’ saying it’s no mystery why they conceal our people’s history