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This play by Olympe de Gouges was written in 1780 and performed by the Comédie Française in 1789. It tells the story of two escaped slaves who flee to a desert island after one has killed the plantation's foreman. After rescuing two French people who are shipwrecked on the island, they are eventually recaptured and later sentenced to death. This play challenged the wisdom of the day and it met a strong opposition from the colonists and the Paris intelligentsia. Subsequently, much of the author's writing suffered the same fate, including her "Declaration of the rights of women and female citizen's" (1791). Olympe de Gouges fought vigorously for social issues and gender equality, however she was strongly opposed to violence. She was guillotined in 1793.
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