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Anthony Gilbert World History from 1500 Brook Halford Document Analysis

Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen

In August of 1789 representatives of the people of France joined together in a National Assembly and declared under a Supreme Being certain rights of man and the citizen. This document nearly mirrored that of the Declaration of Independence but to a more extreme form. Written by Marquis De Lafayette with the influence of Thomas Jefferson, this document focuses on the God-given rights that one is naturally born with and would later be a part of the French constitution in 1791. It played a major role in the French Revolution as it relinquished the French Monarchy and led the charge of liberty and freedom for all. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen was for the "natural and imprescriptible rights of man" to "liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression." After the American colonies declared independence from the monarchy of England just 13 years before, the people of France saw it as there time to be free from the absolutely monarchy and feudalistic state that held the nation captive for so long. On August 26th of 1789 it was stated resolutely by the French people organized in National Assembly, considering that ignorance, forgetfulness, or contempt of the rights of man are the sole causes of public miseries and the corruption of governments, have resolved to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, inalienable, and sacred rights of man, so that this declaration, being ever present to all the members of the social body, may unceasingly remind them of their rights and duties.(Lafayette 1789, Online) This beginning line of the document firmly points out in-excusable acts by the

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King against his people and it enables the people to stand up for their freedoms and liberties that were ideas stressed during the Enlightenment Era that changed the mindset of a continent and the world. With this key document, the outlook of the French nation changed dramatically. In theory, it would bring the absolute monarchy of France to its knees and would set the foundation for a new France. This declaration was inspired by that of the Declaration of Independence and its audience was one in the same. Being ever present to all the members of the social body, may unceasingly remind them of their rights, (Lafayette 1789, Online) its intention was to give people freedoms and liberties that they had not previous thought possible. There were times when, if one was to speak out against the King, that their life would be taken. As time passed and the ideas of the Enlightenment grew stronger and with Lafayette influenced by Thomas Jefferson (the writer of Americas Declaration), the masses began to believe and push for the Monarchy to be overthrown. Prior to the revolution, in places such as the Salon of Madame Geoffrin, Much of the work of the Enlightenment was done in private. Often hosted by aristocratic women, these salons also welcomed down-at-the-heels writers and artists, offering everyone, the opportunity to discuss sciences, the arts, politics, and the idiocies of their fellow humans on an equal basis.(Tignor, Adelman, Aron, Kotkin, Marchand, Prakash, Tsin, Worlds Together Worlds Apart, page 546) This proves that even before the revolution started the people met in masses, albeit privately, to discuss privileges that they wanted but not had the freedom to have. You see that they had an itch for liberties yet to be discovered during a time period where people lived in fear of speaking publically. It was a time period where rights were scarce and the King had absolute power but where ideas were increasingly growing in popularity. Nobles, common folk,

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and women alike began these private meetings years before the revolution and like a flower just planted, the movements were bound to grow. When Marquis De Lafayette was 19, he learned of the American colonies struggle for independence and he came to the colonies to aid them as merely a volunteer. He was regarded as the highest of French nobility due to the fact that he was not paid for his efforts. In the summer of 1777, he was commissioned as a major general by the Continental Congress and served on the staff of General George Washington (Who Served Here, Online). From a young age, Lafayette seemed to have a knack for helping admirable causes and that did not stop for helping his own homeland. He came to America for free and that shows a lot about the character of the man who wrote arguably the single most important document in the history of France, a document that would soon become a part of the Constitution of his own country. Article one states that Men are born free and remain free and equal in rights (Lafayette 1789, Online). That is influenced by the principle of natural rights. It is something that is still present today in French law. It is the most important idea found in the entire document because it allows for "liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression" for all men. As for the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen I agree with the articles involved granting men of what I myself before are natural rights. Lafayette is a person that I look up to due to the fact that he, from such a young age, saw the importance of the call for liberty and independence for all. What makes me admire him even more is that he joined a cause that he was not paid for and at the same time the country he fought freely for was not his own. He selflessly put others before himself and that is the type of person it would take to author the type of document such as this declaration. The information puts use to valuable ideas from the Enlightenment era into a text that gives people freedom rather than tyranny of a king. The Declaration of the Rights of man

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and the Citizen puts to fruition rights fit for all men. The right for one to have property he can call his own; the right for one to feel secure, free from the oppression of a king and the liberty to live freely by which God gave him the rights to live.

This document helped further my education by enabling me to further my critical thinking of what I should put in work. It also helped me to improve my writing as writing is an essential tool of everyday activities. In my general education we continuously wrote papers to improve upon our skills and I learned how to better analyze documents. This document gave me a better understanding of how I live in the world today by allowing me to read a document that was key not only in the history of my own country but that of France and to see the mentality of the people then compared to now and to compare how that thinking has evolved today.

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Bibliography Online
*Marquis De Lafayette, Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (August 26th 1789) http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/declaration.html Valley Forge Historical Society, Who Served Here? http://www.ushistory.org/valleyforge/served/lafayette.html

Book
Robert Tignor, Jeremy Adelman, Stephen Aron, Stephen Kotkin, Suzanne Marchand, Gyan Prakash, Michael Tsin, Worlds Together Worlds Apart (2011, 2008, 2002, by W.W. Norton and Company Inc.)