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Notes -
This is possible in Hong Kong. I was speaking to a woman recently who has lived in HK for a year and not even been catcalled when dressed to go out, let alone felt unsafe at night, even in a dark alleyway.
Also, it's not clear what times or places you are talking about in your post, but the 1800s was a period of an awful lot of surveillance for most people, just not by the government. What proportion of people were even free from the eyes of others (including, in many cases, their parents) when they slept at night? Would you trade staying in the same room as the rest of your family for 19th century French political freedom?
And while you could say some things without the consequences that they'd have today, there were other restrictions in Bourbon France, such as the crime of outrage à la morale religieuse. Another example is that, early on, in the Deuxième Terreur Blanche, saying the wrong thing about Napoleon could get you lynched.
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