French Revolution DBQ

They say knowledge is power. This was the case for 1789 France, where the “Enlightened” peasants, after years of autocratic dominance from the First, Second Estate and the King, decisively fought and won a revolution for civil liberties and rights, an event which would not have happened had the peasants and lower classes not been literate. But, their literacy did not come immediately. It took at least a century for the peasants to be numerously literate, and even then they were still not as educated as the privileged, wealthy nobility. In addition, different regions in France had access to different rates of schooling, which had a profound effect on how the local peasantry responded to their rulers and events. The levels of literacy in Old

The nobility had constantly been opposed to the mass education of the peasants. A founder of an aristocratic women’s school wrote in 1715, “…an aristocratic young lady should receive broader instruction than a wine grower’s daughter… [A wine grower’s daughter] need only know what is absolutely essential for salvation.” (Doc.5) There is a bias of opinion here, considering that this founder was a noble and it was written in 1715, far before the education of lower class women was accepted even by the peasants themselves. Therefore, this further proves how adamant the nobles were against the education of peasants. Another French aristocrat wrote in 1763, “Today, even the lower classes want to study… [The educated peasants] frequently turn out to be a danger to society…The good of society requires that the knowledge of the people not extend farther than its occupations.” (Doc. 10) The nobles even up to the time of the French Revolution still were opposed to the peasants gaining literacy, for an important reason. The nobles felt that by relinquishing the art of literacy to the peasants they would lose some power. That is to say, the peasants would learn just how similar they were to the nobles, and how to critically assess their poor condition, and therefore would lose some reverence and respect to their aristocracy and King. The nobles were not the only ones in opposition either. The government was itself opposed to the lower classes’ education, but for different reasons. A government official in southern France states, “The…physical labors to which peasants are destined for…do not at all demand that they know how to read, and even less that they know how to write.” (Doc. 7) This official was from southern France, a region that as previously stated had much less conditions and motivations to be educated compared to the more “enlightened”