This brief documentary history explores the issue of rights and citizenship that dominated Revolutionary France
and helped define modern notions of civil rights. The rich selection of 38 primary documents - many never before
published in Englishallows students to read and analyze, firsthand, the intense debates and subsequent legislation
engendered by the French Revolution. An extensive introductory essay discusses the controversies over citizenship
and rights current in Enlightenment and Revolutionary France. Headnotes for the documents, a chronology, a bibliography,
engravings from the period, and questions to consider are also included.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Preface
Part I. Introduction: The Revolutionary Origins of Human Rights
Part II. The Documents
1. Defining Rights before 1789
Natural Law as Defined by the Encyclopedia
Religious Toleration
Antislavery Agitation
Women Begin to Agitate for Rights
Categories of Citizenship
2. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, 1789
Debates about the Declaration of Rights, July and August 1789
The Declaration
3. Debates over Citizenship and Rights during the Revolution
The Poor and the Propertied
Religious Minorities and Questionable Professions
Free Blacks and Slaves
Women
Appendices
Chronology
Questions for Consideration
Selected Bibliography
Index
