Editing Anna Laetitia Barbauld (section)

==Political involvement and Hampstead==
[[File:Official medallion of the British Anti-Slavery Society (1795).jpg|thumb|left|alt=Drawing which shows a slave kneeling and holding up his clasped and manacled hands. Underneath him, a banner says "Am I Not a Man and a Brother?"|Design for the medallion of the [[Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade|Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade]] (formed 1787), struck by [[Josiah Wedgwood]]]]

In September 1785, the Barbaulds left Palgrave for a tour of France. By this time Rochemont's mental health was deteriorating and he was no longer able to carry out his teaching duties.<ref>Rodgers, p. 92.</ref> In 1787, they moved to [[Hampstead]], where Rochemont was asked to serve as the minister at what later became [[Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel]]. It was here that Barbauld became close friends with [[Joanna Baillie]], the playwright. 

Although no longer in charge of a school, the Barbaulds did not abandon their commitment to education; they often boarded one or two pupils recommended by personal friends.<ref>Rodgers, pp. 101–102.</ref> Barbauld lived on Hampstead's [[Church Row, Hampstead|Church Row]] in the early 1800s, though it is not known exactly which house she occupied.<ref name="McCarthy2008">McCarthy, ''Voice of the Enlightenment'', p. 615.</ref>

During this time, the heyday of the [[French Revolution]], Barbauld published her most radical political pieces. From 1787 to 1790, [[Charles James Fox]] attempted to convince the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] to pass a law granting Dissenters full citizenship rights. When this bill was defeated for the third time, Barbauld wrote one of her most passionate pamphlets, ''An Address to the Opposers of the Repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts'' (see [[Test Acts|Test Act]]). Readers were shocked to discover that such a well-reasoned argument should come from a woman. 

In 1791, after [[William Wilberforce]]'s attempt to [[Abolitionism in the United Kingdom|abolish]] the [[Atlantic slave trade|slave trade]] had failed, Barbauld published her ''Epistle to William Wilberforce Esq. On the Rejection of the Bill for Abolishing the Slave Trade'', which not only lamented the fate of the enslaved, but warned of the cultural and social degeneration the British people could expect if they did not abolish slavery. In 1792, she continued this theme of national responsibility in an anti-war sermon entitled ''Sins of Government, Sins of the Nation'' which argued that each individual is responsible for the actions of the nation: "We are called upon to repent of national sins, because we can help them, and because we ought to help them".<ref>Barbauld, "Sins of Government, Sins of the Nation." (2002), p. 300.</ref>