France Declares the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

On 26 August 1789, the National Constituent Assembly in Versailles passed the final article of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Intended as an initial framework for a new French constitution, the seventeen articles articulated a universal doctrine of natural rights. The text established that human beings are born free and equal in rights, dismantling the legal foundation of noble privileges, tax exemptions, and feudal obligations that had structured the Old Regime.

The intellectual roots of the document drew from the European Enlightenment, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau's concept of the general will and the Baron de Montesquieu's separation of powers. Across Europe and North America, discussions in coffeehouses, periodicals, and reading societies helped diffuse these theories beyond a traditional elite. Marquis de Lafayette prepared early drafts in close consultation with Thomas Jefferson, echoing themes from the American revolution and the earlier U.S. Declaration of Independence. When Lafayette presented an early proposal in July 1789, however, some deputies resisted it, concerned that declaring expansive principles would foster expectations the state could not satisfy.