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Petronella Moens, the Blind Rebel
Published on: 2 september 2026
Meet this blind writer who championed women's rights and the abolition of slavery around 1800.
Meet this blind writer who championed women's rights and the abolition of slavery around 1800.
Petronella Moens (1762–1843) wrote to make the world a better place, starting with the Netherlands. In novels, poems and political reflections, she advocated women’s suffrage and opposes slavery. For a woman of her time, she was remarkably outspoken, earning her the nickname ‘Pietje Potentate, the strong-willed’.
“What a dreadful sight! Ah, America! How deeply you drink of the tears, in revulsion; Of weary, tortured Africans; Along the sugar fields and coffee groves.”
Women were expected to become mothers and stay home to care for their children. That is what many of Moens' contemporaries believed. But Moens wrote that women are capable of much more. Reading books and thinking, for example.
For her time, Moens was progressive. But now, some two centuries later, her ideas come across as rather traditional. She believed - quite modernly - that women should develop intellectually.
But the thinking behind it was - very conservative - that this would make them better mothers.
Illustration from ‘Letter wreath for sweet and good children’, 1806
“Pure bliss fills a man's heart when the woman raising his beloved children awakens the powers of understanding in their young, emerging minds.”
Moens was proud to be Dutch, and she could write shocking things about foreigners.
For example, she wrote about Turks 'who murder everyone', while Spaniards, according to her, were 'stupid, superstitious people'.
At the same time, she believed that a good upbringing and education could make anyone a good person.
It shows that progressive ideas and prejudices can sometimes coexist.
Moens needed help with writing because she was blind. Here, she is dictating texts to her assistant, Antje Camphuis.
Moens left behind more than 150 poems, magazine articles, novels and plays.
