Documents from Censer & Hunt, <Liberty, Equality...>
addressing the rights of different groups between 1788 & 1791.
See below for questions on Jews, Negroes, and women.
1.
What aspects of Enlightenment thought are reflected in the Declaration?
What view is presented of the individual?
2. What are the “natural rights” asserted by this document?
3.
How are the terms nation and sovereignty used?
How does the new understanding of these terms differ from the Old Regime?
4.
How is “liberty” defined? Is this definition consistent with or different
from the
definitions we have seen so far in Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau?
5. Why is the Declaration described as a juridical revolution?
6. How does the Declaration define the “general will”?
7. What is said about religion and the right to worship?
8. What does the Declaration say about property? What about taxation?
9.
What does “equality” mean in the Declaration, and how is this term
re-interpreted in later stages of the Revolution?
10. What makes this Declaration the “death certificate of the old regime”?
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Hourwitz, Vindication of the Jews, 1788 [Censer & Hunt, 42-43]
1. Who is the author and what is the occasion for writing this piece?
2. What were the limitations on Jews in old regime France?
3. What attitude does the [Jewish] author display towards Jews?
4. What program does he suggest for their improvement?
5. How would Jewish religious leaders have reacted to this?
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Essars, On Emancipation of the Negroes, 1790 [Censer & Hunt, 133-6]
1. Which earlier writer’s influence can be seen in language of preface (p. 134)?
2. W 2. What is Essar's [the author’s] attitude towards the slaves he wants freed?
3. How does the author propose that the process of freeing slaves should take place?
4. What economic arrangements are suggested for freed slaves?
5.
What happened to this proposal in the National Assembly?
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Olympia
de Gouges The Rights of Women 1791 on CD ROM in Censer & Hunt, link here & under Links to short documents
Preface to the Queen Marie Antoinette (this is separate link to the Preface)
1.
Preface to Marie Antoinette: What is the author’s attitude towards the Queen,
and what does she
want from the Queen?
2. What can be learned from nature about the “natural” relationships between the sexes? How do humans differ?
3.
Compare the language of this piece and definition of key terms such as freedom,
rights, nation, general will,
tyranny with Declaration Of Rights of Man.
4. How are women to be treated before the law?
5.
What is the author’s view of women’s role in history to date? Of marriage?
Of illegitimate children? Attitude to events in the French colonies?
6. What happened to Olympia de Gouges?