Wollstonecraft Chronology 3111791 France’s National Assembly adopts its fi rst republican
constitution, with the Declaration of the Rights of Man
and of the Citizen as its preamble.
Former Catholic Bishop turned French revolutionary
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord publishes his Re-
port on Public Education, which briefl y raises the issue of
girls’ and women’s rights to education and formal citizen-
ship in the new French republic.
The Bill of Rights —with the fi rst amendment
prohibiting an established religion and guaranteeing
individual rights to speech, press, association, petition,
religious practice, and conscience — is ratifi ed by the
United States.
Olympe de Gouges publishes her pamphlet “Declara-
tion of the Rights of Woman and Citizen” in Paris.
1791 Wollstonecraft starts writing her fi rst book-length work of
political philosophy, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman,
dedicating it to Talleyrand-Périgord.
She meets William Godwin for the fi rst time at a dinner
party including members of the intellectual circle sur-
rounding Joseph Johnson. Another member of this circle,
the poet William Blake, illustrates the second edition of
Original Stories.
1792 William Wilberforce leads the massive petition movement
in the British House of Commons for the abolition of the
slave trade.
France passes an egalitarian divorce law, granting the
right to no-fault divorce for women and men.
1792 An instant international success, A Vindication of the
Rights of Woman is published in London, Paris, Lyon,
Boston, and Philadelphia.
Wollstonecraft moves to Paris, in support of the revolu-
tionary cause, at the end of the year.
1793 The radical stage of the French Revolution intensifi es with
the Terror and its public executions of political enemies to
Robespierre’s regime.
Louis XVI, Queen Marie Antoinette, and Olympe de
Gouges are guillotined.
Godwin publishes his radical anarchist philosophical
treatise Political Justice in London.