just logged in for the first time in two years (lol) uhhhh i changed handles. if whoever asked this still cares, i’m @rogueieader on twt

Oh, wow, thanks! Sorry it’s not really, like… active anymore. I get notifications on it all the time, which is both funny and confusing, but I don’t really have the time to research the way I used to now that I work full-time. I have no plans on deleting it because I figure it’s a pretty good resource for anyone interested, and I still may post every so often (like now).

I realize a simple “thank you” would suffice, but I just saw this in my inbox and felt it was important to address — I’ve been meaning to for a while now, anyway. Thanks again, though!

Hi, sorry I’m getting to this about a million years late.

I feel the need to point out that, by modern standards of feminism and misogyny, the answer is probably yes. From an 18th century POV? There’s not really a ton of evidence either way.

Some would certainly argue that, like, him ditching his pregnant wife to go fight in a war that had nothing to do with him was pretty shitty, but I’d honestly chalk it up to him being a reckless youth moreso than him being a misogynist.

He definitely loved Adrienne, but obviously that’s not a concrete reason for him not to be a misogynist. Lafayette never, to my knowledge, spoke out about education for women (and subjects of that nature) like some of his revolutionary compatriots did. Now, that’s not quite the same as outright misogyny, but I wouldn’t necessarily categorize him as an 18th century feminist, either.

Lafayette had three daughters, and I can’t find anything about their education written anywhere. I’m sure, given their status, that it was good, but I can’t seem to confirm whether or not they received the same level of education as Lafayette’s son did. (Two of them did, however, spend two years in prison with their father during the French revolution. So that’s something.)

Now, I may be wrong about some of this — I’m no Lafayette expert, by any means, and the research I did was inconclusive at best. I’m going to go ahead and say, overall, he probably wasn’t a misogynist by his time’s standards. I’d like to say that, given his involvement in the French abolitionist movement, as well, hopefully not? I really can’t give a definitive answer, though. Hoped this helped in some way, though!

Nope! To my knowledge, all of his siblings died unmarried and without issue, as well, so the André line died out with his generation.

Oh, thanks! It’s from Alexander Hamilton’s letter to John Laurens about the capture of John André. You can find it here.