The French Revolution and Human Rights.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hunt, Lynn, 1945-

Contributor:

GIC Course Text Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

History.

Local Subjects:

History.

Edition:

Second edition.

Summary:

This new edition of The French Revolution and Human Rights: A Brief History with Documents offers a new section covering limits on rights to complement its rich exploration of the issue of rights and citizenship in Revolutionary France. Lynn Hunt, a leading scholar of the French Revolution, presents original translations and commentary on the debates and legislation that helped define modern notions of human rights. Her revised introduction provides an overview of the French development of the concept of human rights and the consequences that resulted from putting those rights into practice. A new section on national security and the limits on rights gives readers a sense of the issues that led French revolutionaries to suppress rights in the name of the nation and its security. Helpful editorial features include document headnotes, a chronology, questions for consideration, a selected bibliography, and an index. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part 1 Introduction: The Revolutionary Origins of Human Rights 1

Defining Rights before 1789 3

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, 1789 12

Debates over Citizenship and Rights during the Revolution 15

National Security and Limits on Rights 29

Part 2 The Documents 33

1 Defining Rights before 1789 35

Natural Law as Defined by the Encyclopedia, 1755 35

1 Diderot, "Natural Law," 1755 35

Religious Toleration 38

2 Voltaire, Treatise on Toleration, 1763 38

3 Edict of Toleration, November 1787 40

4 Letter from Rabaut Saint Etienne on the Edict of Toleration, December 6, 1787 43

5 Zalkind Hourwitz, Vindication of the Jews, 1789 46

Antislavery Agitation 49

6 Abbé Raynal, From the Philosophical and Political History of the Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies, 1770 49

7 Condorcet, Reflections on Negro Slavery, 1781 54

8 Society of the Friends of Blacks, Discourse on the Necessity of Establishing in Paris a Society for... the Abolition of the Slave Trade and of Negro Slavery, 1788 56

Women Begin to Agitate for Rights 58

9 "Petition of Women of the Third Estate to the King," January 1, 1789 58

Categories of Citizenship 61

10 Abbé Sieyès. What Is the Third Estate?, January 1789 61

2 The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, 1789 68

Debates about the Declaration of Rights, July and August 1789 68

11 Marquis de Lafayette, July 11, 1789 68

12 Duke Mathieu de Montmorency, August 1, 1789 70

13 Malouet, August 1, 1789 72

The Declaration 74

14 "Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen," August 26, 1789 74

3 Debates over Citizenship and Rights during the Revolution 77

The Poor and the Propertied 77

15 Abbé Sieyès, Preliminary to the French Constitution, August 1789 78

16 Thouret, Report on the Basis of Political Eligibility, September 29, 1789 79

17 Speech of Robespierre Denouncing the New Conditions of Eligibility, October 22, 1789 80

Religious Minorities and Questionable Professions 81

18 Brunet de Latuque, December 21, 1789 81

19 Count de Clermont Tonnerre, December 23, 1789 83

20 Abbé Maury, December 23, 1789 85

21 Letter from French Actors, December 24, 1789 87

22 Petition of the Jews of Paris, Alsace, and Lorraine to the National Assembly, January 28, 1790 88

23 La Fare, Bishop of Nancy, Opinion on the Admissibility of Jews to Full Civil and Political Rights, Spring 1790 92

24 Admission of Jews to Rights of Citizenship, September 27, 1791 93

Free Blacks and Slaves 95

25 The Abolition of Negro Slavery or Means for Ameliorating Their Lot, 1789 95

26 Motion Made by Vincent Ogé the Younger to the Assembly of Colonists, 1789 97

27 Abbé Grégoire, Memoir in Favor of the People of Color or Mixed-Race of Saint Domingue, 1789 99

28 Society of the Friends of Blacks, Address to the National Assembly in Favor of the Abolition of the Slave Trade, February 5, 1790 100

29 Speech of Barnave, March 8,1790 103

30 Kersaint, Discussion of Troubles in the Colonies, March 28,1792 105

31 Decree of the National Convention of February 4, 1794, Abolishing Slavery in All the Colonies 108

Women 109

32 Condorcet, "On the Admission of Women to the Rights of Citizenship," July 1790 109

33 Etta Palm D'Aelders, Discourse on the Injustice of the Laws in Favor of Men, at the Expense of Women, December 30, 1790 112

34 Olympe de Gouges, The Declaration of the Rights of Woman, September 1791 115

35 Prudhomme, "On the Influence of the Revolution on Women," February 12, 1791 120

36 Discussion of Citizenship under the Proposed New Constitution, April 29, 1793 123

37 Discussion of Women's Political Clubs and Their Suppression, October 29-30, 1793 126

38 Chaumette, Speech at the General Council of the City Government of Paris Denouncing Women's Political Activism, November 17, 1793 129

4 National Security and limits on Rights 131

39 Law Forbidding Workers' Guilds and Professional Corporations, June 14, 1791 131

40 Law Suppressing Religious Communities and Prohibiting Religious Dress in Public, April 6, 1792 133

41 Law on Suspects, September 17, 1793 134

42 Law Limiting Rights of Defendants, June 10, 1794 135.

ISBN:

9781319049034