Author: s.ngalaba

“The purpose of all political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of woman and man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and especially resistance to oppression.”

The preface of this reading portion explained that Marie Gouze was a self educated female who became a voice in the French Revolution by expanding reform to include women. She wrote her pamphlet to Marie Antoinette but also included warning. She mentioned that if there was no support of the movement, there was a chance that French royalty itself would become a thing of the past by force. In the preamble of her declaration she believes most of the turmoil in her country can be linked to neglecting of rights of women and not just men. She believes that a just government is in a position and is called to safeguard the rights of its citizens.

Her belief echoes a similar statement in the Declaration of Independence of the United States instead of France. The writers of that document went further by saying that a government that fails to do so gives its citizens the right to overthrow it in favor of a new one. Marie in her pamphlet extends these rights that should be protected to include security and resistance to oppression in her words. She also fights for equal opportunity by arguing there shouldn’t be discrimination in the work force by women having the ability to pursue equal employment as men.

 

“We Humbly Pray, That you our Trusty Patrons would improve your Interest, that henceforth the Drinking COFFEE may on severe penalties be forbidden to all Persons under the Age of Threescore;”

The title of this document specifies that the perspective of the following writing is from the female point of view. A few lines in, it is included that that the legislative body of the “Worshipful Court of Female-Assistants” is the target of a petition filed out by several thousand civilian women. This complaint is revealed as being triggered by the negative effects resulting from the consumption of the beverage of coffee. Men are blamed (in later portions of the text) as being severely affected to the extent that they are unable to even work; to the point where some are described as just lying around lazily and asleep half the time when they are expected to be up and about tending to whatever is in need.

Towards the second to last page, there is even the accusation that it strips them of their masculinity behavior-wise and that things aren’t as they were and have been before. There are direct accusations by wives of their men spending their time gathering at these coffee house and being drunk up to three different times a day. Referring back to the quote, this is enough to convince the writer that an age limit must be placed on those allowed to consume the beverage.

“…many Tradesmen and others, do therein mis-spend much of their time…in such houses, and by occasion of the meetings of such persons therein…False, Malitious and Scandalous Reports are devised and spread abroad, to the Defamation of His Majesties Government, and to the Disturbance of the Peace and Quiet of the Realm…”

The document written by or at least instructed at the request of English royalty opens with  the reader acknowledging the existence of coffee houses. These places are also revealed as having increased in quantity as of late within the colonial lands of the nation such as Wales and the Town of Berwick. There is a claim made that all those who congregate in these houses are up to no good. The likes of such people in attendance are also specified when the direct reference to tradesmen is made.

Based on this, we are able to assume that usually working class people are the ones to be found at such functions; not very much unlike bars. These people are in essence being accused of committing treason or at least creating and/or contributing to an environment that at some point would be capable of fostering it. Suppression of this potential treason is treated as a priority to the extent that efforts for the disbanding of the establishments are requested personally through Royal Proclamation by the direct Monarchy itself. The writer, being aware of the burden of enforcement of the new legislation from a distance, instructs local government authorities to void and recall all licenses of the served beverages alone.

“The change I now experience was as painful as it was sudden and unexpected. It was a change indeed from a state of bliss to a scene which is inexpressible by me, as it discovered to me an element I had never before beheld, and till then had no idea of, and wherein such instances of hardship and cruelty continually occurred as I can never reflect on but with horror.”

The reading portion opens with the above prologue revealing Oladauh Equiano as a captured African seized and forcibly loaded onboard a New World-bound slave ship. On the first page, he mentions the kidnapping of his sister and himself when he states that “two men and a woman got over our walls, and in a moment seized us both…to carry us as far as they could…”. This kidnapping results in his transport by sea across continents to serve as a slave in  the West Indies. Equiano’s forced transition of being uprooted from his normal, previously undisturbed life that he goes as far as labeling as blissful within Africa to being sold into slavery upon arrival to Barbados results in personal depression and suspension of his will to live. This is observable when Equiano witnesses his fellow African crewmates as being “chained together, every one of their countenances expressing dejection and sorrow…”. Equiano, his fellow African crewmates and other slaves with or without documented accounts experienced a significantly shocking alteration to their lives as they became property instead of individuals against their will.

“When King Pyrrhus crossed into Italy, after noting the excellent formation of the army which the Romans had sent ahead towards him he said, ‘I don’t know what kind of Barbarians these are…but there is nothing barbarous about the ordering of the army which I can see!’…We should be similarly wary of accepting common opinions; we should judge them by the ways of reason not by popular vote.”

On page 79, there is a preface beneath the title and before the beginning of the reading portion that reveals Montaigne’s background prior to his experiences in the South American country of Brazil. We learn that before having left his home country, he had read different stories written by previous explores who detailed their voyages to the New World such as Historia del mondo novo by Girolamo Benzoni and other accounts. The similarity in all of these was that they mostly detailed harsh treatment of natives and locals by explorers such as Spaniards within the area at the time.

We can deduct that harsh treatment of indigenous people was a norm but we also come to find that Montaigne held a viewpoint in contradiction to the ones that preceded his. Towards the end of the quote, it is Montaigne himself saying that prejudice shouldn’t be resorted to initially and that individual evaluation must be made. This quote is significant because this is not just a personal opinion he voices but it is also one that has been held before by King Pyrrhus in a similar culture clash of a situation. Montaigne cites this documented opinion in support of his own similar one. Referring back to the preface, his attitude is even named and labeled as primitivism, which can be defined as “respesct for barbarous peoples and…admiration of their conduct, once their motives are understood”.

 

 

 

 

Hello my name is Shalom Ngalaba. I live in Queens, New York but I was originally born in the east African country of Tanzania. My dad works in the UN and that’s why we moved here back in 2002. I want to earn a degree in Business Management by the time I graduate from Baruch. History is a subject that is worth studying because it holds significance in life as a whole. We are where we are only because of our awareness of where we came from and accomplishments we are proud of or regret. I don’t think this will change moving forward.