Compare and contrast the Declaration of Independence and the Rights of Man
Few political documents have affected the world like the Declaration of Independence or the French Declaration of the Right of Man and Citizen. The Declaration of the Right of Man and Citizen is a document written in 1789 and the Declaration of Independence was written July 4, 1776. Both documents talk about being equal and talk about freedom, but they are still different. Not really for what was written in them but for what reason they were written. The Declaration of Independence was written to show how the British had wronged the states. The French Declaration of the Right of Man and Citizen was composed to show what the natural rights were that each citizen had.
The Declaration of Independence talks about the people of the United States as being free, and explains how the British stand in the way of free people living freely. This is a lot like the first clause of the French Declaration, where it says that all people are free and are to live in equality. This point is relevant and present in all declarations of this nature. When people come together to write documents such as these, they usually don’t forget to remind that everyone is born equal.
Neither document addressed the issues of slavery or women’s rights, which were basically ignored since no slaves nor women participated in the writing or approval of the documents. Thomas Jefferson and others were slave owners, so why would they want their slaves to have rights and possibility be able to leave them. I think that both documents should have at least touched a little on each matter. Both documents are said to remind everyone that each person born is equal but how is that possible when the documents didn’t give African Americans or women any rights.
All in all, The United States Declaration of Independence and French declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen were both documents standing for freedom and equality. The documents were written at different times, with different priorities however, both stood for same thing. The United States declaration was fighting for freedom and equality, while the French declaration was basically just enforcing it. The ideas in both were to say if a king abuses the right of the people then they have the right to get rid of the current powers and create a new one.
