1788 to 1789

Society

1788. The Parliament of Paris presents Louis XVI with a list of grievances as the country suffers its worst economic chaos of the century.

1788. Australia's Botany Bay becomes an English penal colony.

1788. New York physicians go into hiding for 3 days in April as a mob riots in protest against grave robbers. The state will pass a law next year enabling physicians to obtain cadavers without robbing graves.

1788. The Times of London begins publication.

Literature

Critique of Practical Reason. Immanuel Kant. German. 1788. Philosophy. Constructed philosophy of ethics based on practical reason or free will of man. Moral law is unconditional, universal, and is called the categorical imperative. "Act only on a maxim whereby you can at the same time will it to become a universal law."

Egmont. Goethe. German. 1788. Play. Uptight, straightforward hero unable to survive subtle political machinations.

Society

1789. The French Revolution begins.

1789. Members of the third estate (Nobles were the first estate; clergy were the second estate; peasants, serfs, yeomen and the early bourgeoisie were the third estate.) attack the Bastille prison at Paris, July 12. It falls July 14. Only 7 prisoners are inside. The revolutionists overthrow the regime of Louis XVI.

1789. France's nobility begins to emigrate as peasants rise against their feudal lords.

1789. A Paris mob riots and a revolutionary band, mostly women, marches to Versailles. Gen. Lafayette rescues the royal family and moves it to Paris.

1789. George Washington takes office at New York to begin the first of two terms as first president of the United States.

1789.The Declaration of the Rights of Man adopted by the French assembly declares that man has "natural and imprescribable rights. These rights are liberty, property, personal security and resistance to oppression...."

1789. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation by English barrister Jeremy Bentham expounds the basic ethical doctrine of "the greatest happiness of the greatest number" as the chief object of all conduct and legislation.

1789. The first known American advertisement for tobacco appears with a picture of an Indian smoking a long clay pipe while leaning against a hogshead marked "Best Virginia."

1789. Sailors aboard H.M.S. Bounty bound for the West Indies with breadfruit plants mutiny April 28 in protest against being deprived of water that is being lavished on the plants.

1789. Nine out of ten Americans are engaged in farming and food production.

Literature

The Power of Sympathy. Sarah Wentworth Morton. American. 1789. Novel. First U.S. novel. Letters. Hero discovers he can't marry his socially inferior lover. She is his half-sister. The shock of this discovery kills her. He commits suicide.

Declaration of the Rights of Man. Anonymous. French. 1789. Nonfiction. Document setting forth the principles of the French Revolution. Modeled on the American Declaration of Independence.