The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

On 26 August 1789 the National Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, intended as the preamble to a new constitution. Its seventeen articles proclaimed that men are born and remain free and equal in rights, that sovereignty resides in the nation, and that law is the expression of the general will. It protected freedom of opinion and expression, the presumption of innocence, and property as a sacred right, and it required taxes to be shared according to ability.

Lafayette drafted early versions, and the text drew on Enlightenment ideas and American declarations. Its universal language was powerful but also raised hard questions: did 'man' include women, the poor, religious minorities or enslaved people in the colonies? Those questions drove debate for years, and the Declaration became a model for later rights documents worldwide.