Eighteenth-Century Chronology: 1791

This page in the Eighteenth-Century Chronology is maintained by Jack Lynch. Please send suggestions and corrections to jlynch@andromeda.rutgers.edu.

Literature

James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
??? Volney, Ruins of Empires (French)
William Blake, The French Revolution (proofs only; not published until ???)
William Lisle Bowles, A Poetical Address to Burke
Elizabeth Inchbald, A Simple Story
Ann Radcliffe, The Romance of the Forest
Susanna Rowson, Charlotte: A Tale of Truth (later retitled Charlotte Temple)
Susanna Rowson, Mentoria; or, The Young Lady's Friend
Charlotte Smith, Celestina
January: William Wordsworth travels from London to Cambridge
February-March: Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, Part I
1 September: William Blake illustrates an edition of Mary Wollstonecraft, Original Stories
December: William Wordsworth visits France a second time

1 September: William Blake illustrates an edition of Mary Wollstonecraft, Original Stories

Commons rejects Wilberforce's first abolition motion
Commons approves a charter for Sierra Leone, its company pledged to oppose the slave trade in Africa
A slave uprising on St. Domingue causes sugar prices to rise steeply
Horace Walpole inherits an earldom from his nephew, becoming Fourth Earl of Orford
February-March: Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, Part I
7 May: James Mackintosh, Vindicae Gallicae
19 May: Edmund Burke, "Letter to a Member of the National Assembly" (dated January)
14 July: The "Church and King Terror" or Birmingham riots; Joseph Priestly's house and laboratory are destroyed by a mob
2 August: Edmond Burke, An Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs
20 August: Thomas Paine, "Address and Declaration of the Friends of Universal Peace and Liberty," responds to Burke
1 October: The French Legislative Assembly opens
December: The French Legislative Assembly deprives emigrés of their property
United Irishmen founded in Belfast