My name is Aurélie Lacroix Dufour, I was born on the 28th of March in 1784, which means I´m 16 years old now. I was born and raised in the city of Paris but a couple of months ago my parents decided to move from Paris to Marseilles, the reason is unknown they didn´t think I was important enough to tell me or my brother Olivier.
My parents are called Edmond and Corinne, they met when they were 14 and got married in Paris some years ago. I live with my mother, father, and older brother.
It has been three weeks since we arrived at Marseilles and I decided to start recording what happens in my life so that someone in the future knows how living during the 19th century was, and what I as a woman is able to do, which is not much.
One of my favorite activities is reading obviously is not something I can do completely freely, as a woman I have no legal access to formal education but my brother who is three years older than me, helps me get books about different topics, and thanks to him I have access to education, he is the most important person in my life I owe him everything I know, he thinks it is important for me to learn how to read, write, basic mathematics, geography, and history.
My brother not only gives me his books he also tries to give small tutoring sessions whenever my parents are not home because they don´t think that having basic mathematical knowledge and critical thinking is important for a young woman like me. In the sessions, we review the topics I don´t fully understand with the books, which are usually related to mathematics and he tries to clarify the questions I have.
Another activity I really enjoy doing is observing nature, I usually observe plants and animals, I like to walk to a forest or a landscape full of flowers and imagine I´m free to do whatever I want to do with my life and make my own decisions, I love to smell flowers and collect rocks I consider they have a particular form or color.
For me the worst part of living during this time is that I don´t have access to formal education, I love to read and learn new topics and facts, and I highly appreciate what my brother does for me and the effort he puts in all of the small lessons but sometimes I wonder how would it be to go to a normal school, with a teacher and other classmates. This is the worst part because I don´t think there is a logical reason that justifies why women can´t study or why men are somehow considered superior.
But not everything is bad for me, one of the things I enjoy the most is having a lot of o things to discover, for example, what happened in the past by studying history, or what is happening at this moment in another part of the world. I still have a lot to learn, discover and create, and I think this is something I like about living in this year.
My experience with the French Revolution and the Enlightenment.
I remember my brother telling me the story of the French Revolution, I consider the main causes were; the economical crisis that happened between 1787 and 1788, there were bad harvests and prices of food increased, manufacturing went slow, and the amount of unemployment was rising. Another cause was the extremely unfair conditions in which France was been ruled, I have the fortune to be part of the nobility, but people from the Third Estate who were the poorest were the only ones that paid taxes, also the ideas of the Enlightenment were quickly spreading and started to have a great influence in people.
I think that one cause of the Enlightenment was the necessity to look for new answers and a new way to do and see things. During the Enlightenment the production of books was becoming faster and easier, this led to people having access to books and more people reading, this was a fundamental element for the ideas of the Enlightenment to spread through Europe.
They both left positive aspects, the French Revolution decreased the power that the Catholic Church had before it, I consider this is a positive aspect because we are now a little freer to believe in what we consider is correct. The Enlightenment also brought positive aspects with it, one of them is that it defended human rights, science was established as a source of knowledge and it also helped combat the excess of power the Church had.
On the other hand, both processes left behind negative aspects, in the case of the French Revolution I consider it´s all the lives that were lost during the Reign of Terror, and the economy was severely affected by the war. For the Enlightenment its ideas were affecting religion by giving other answers to existential questions and emphasizing in science, this caused that people who didn´t agree with these ideas became protestants.
What changed?
Something I consider changed is the respect and fight for human rights, after the French Revolution, a lot of people were influenced by the ideas this process brought along with the Enlightenment.
Some aspects remain after all of these processes like for example the great quantity of power that the government has over the people, my actions are being controlled by the government.
I would rather live in a period of time in which human rights are more respected and are more important for people, this is because I believe that by living when human rights are respected the society is closer to a time when women will have the same rights as men.
Same time, different place.
Once my brother told me about how people were living in Central America in a country called Mexico, it is curious how my lifestyle is different from the one other people have although we live at the same time, not everything is different we share some common aspects, Mexico is going through similar conditions, people in Mexico are ruled by the Spanish royalty and people of Mexico are the ones who are suffering the most, the worst part of this is that this monarchy over Mexico has been there for more than a hundred years. However, we still have differences. for example in France the monarchs are mistreating their own people, it is not like a foreign country is doing it to us.
I think that the differences exist because of the different circumstances that each country has been through and the way we have responded to it.
Philosophers of the Enlightenment
The philosopher I personally agree the most with is Voltaire, he was born in 1694, the reason I agree with him the most is because of what he defends, he thinks that freedom of speech is sacred and should be respected in all situations or circumstances.
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