D3 (Case Study): Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (August 1791) is a fundamental document of the French Revolution and in the history of human and civil rights. The inspiration and content of the document emerged largely from the ideals of the American Revolution.

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The French leaders who wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Man were inspired by the American leaders who wrote the Declaration of Independence.

The document defines a single set of individual and collective rights for all men. Influenced by the doctrine of natural rights, these rights are held to be universal and valid in all times and places. Correspondingly, the role of government, carried on by elected representatives, is to recognize and secure these rights.

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According to this document, natural rights are supposed to be _______, which means they apply to everyone, and valid in _______ times and places.

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The French government is supposed to include _______ representatives, which means that people must _______ for the person they want to represent them in the government.

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Thomas Jefferson — the primary author of the U.S. Declaration of Independence —was in France as a U.S. diplomat and worked closely with Lafayette on designing a bill of rights for France.

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Which American leader helped the French write their version of a declaration?

At the time of writing, the rights contained in the declaration were only awarded to men. Furthermore, the declaration was a statement of vision rather than reality...It embodied ideals toward which France aspired to struggle in the future.

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The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen applied to both men and women in France.

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It called for freedom and equal rights for all human beings (referred to as “Men”) and access to public office based on talent. The monarchy was restricted and all citizens had the right to take part in the legislative process. Freedom of speech and press were declared and arbitrary arrests outlawed. The Declaration also asserted the principles of popular sovereignty, in contrast to the divine right of kings that characterized the French monarchy, and social equality among citizens, eliminating the special rights of the nobility and clergy.

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The new French government limited the power of the monarchy.

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While the French Revolution provided rights to a larger portion of the population, there remained a distinction between those who obtained the political rights in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen and those who did not. Those who were deemed to hold these political rights were called active citizens, a designation granted to men who were French, at least 25 years old, paid taxes equal to three days of work, and could not be defined as servants. This meant that at the time of the Declaration only male property owners held these rights. Women, slaves, youth, and foreigners were excluded.

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The new French government gave equal rights to everyone, including women, enslaved persons, children, and immigrants.

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Tensions arose between active and passive citizens throughout the Revolution and the question of women’s rights emerged as particularly prominent. The Declaration did not recognize women as active citizens despite the fact that after the March on Versailles on October 5, 1789, women presented the Women’s Petition to the National Assembly, in which they proposed a decree giving women equal rights. The absence of women’s rights prompted Olympe de Gouges to publish the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen in September 1791. Modeled on the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, it exposes the failure of the French Revolution, which had been devoted to equality.

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Why do some people claim that the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was somewhat hypocritical?

The Declaration did not revoke the institution of slavery...Thousands of slaves in Saint-Domingue (aka Haiti), the most profitable slave colony in the world, engaged in uprisings (with critical attempts beginning also in August 1791) that would be known as the first successful slave revolt in the New World. Slavery in the French colonies was abolished by the Convention in 1794. However, Napoleon (a new leader of France) reinstated it in 1802. In 1804, the colony of Saint-Domingue became an independent state, now called the Republic of Haiti.

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The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen got rid of all slavery in France and in the French colonies.

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D3 (Case Study): Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

The French leaders who wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Man were inspired by the American leaders who wrote the Declaration of Independence.

Which American leader helped the French write their version of a declaration?

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen applied to both men and women in France.

The new French government limited the power of the monarchy.

The new French government gave equal rights to everyone, including women, enslaved persons, children, and immigrants.

Why do some people claim that the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was somewhat hypocritical?

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen got rid of all slavery in France and in the French colonies.

The French leaders who wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Man were inspired by the American leaders who wrote the Declaration of Independence.

According to this document, what is the ultimate purpose of government?

Which American leader helped the French write their version of a declaration?

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen applied to both men and women in France.

The men in France immediately got all of the rights that were written about in the declaration.

According to France's new rules, how could someone get access to public office (meaning that they could serve in the government)?

The new French government limited the power of the monarchy.

Check off all of the following that were true of the new French government.

The new French government gave equal rights to everyone, including women, enslaved persons, children, and immigrants.

Which of the following was not a characteristic of an "active citizen" in France?

Why do some people claim that the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was somewhat hypocritical?

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen got rid of all slavery in France and in the French colonies.

The French government abolished slavery soon after the Declaration, but then Napoleon reinstated slavery less than ten years later.

What is the connection between France the Haitian Revolution?

According to this document, what is the ultimate purpose of government?

The men in France immediately got all of the rights that were written about in the declaration.

According to France's new rules, how could someone get access to public office (meaning that they could serve in the government)?

Check off all of the following that were true of the new French government.

Which of the following was not a characteristic of an "active citizen" in France?

The French government abolished slavery soon after the Declaration, but then Napoleon reinstated slavery less than ten years later.

What is the connection between France the Haitian Revolution?