SOURCE: Ferguson, Moira. “Mary Wollstonecraft and the Problematic of Slavery.” Feminist Review 42 (autumn 1992): 82-102.

In the following essay, Ferguson examines Wollstonecraft's discourse on slavery in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and other works as it pertains to the “enslavement” of women as well as to colonial slavery.

A traffic that outrages every suggestion of reason and religion … [an] inhuman custom.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

I love most people best when they are in adversity, for pity is one of my prevailing passions.

Collected Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft

History and Texts Before a Vindication of the Rights of Woman

In 1790, Mary Wollstonecraft became a major participant in contemporary political debate for the first time, due to her evolving political analysis and social milieu. In contrast to A Vindication of the Rights of Men in 1790 which drew primarily on the language of natural rights for...