The Social Contract By Olympe De Rousseau's The Way To The French Revolution

In the late 18th century the Enlightenment gave way to the French Revolution. With this came new, radical views on what it meant to be a French citizen and what it meant to be free. Even amongst revolutionaries the concept of rights and freedom varied. In the whirlwind of ideologies, the societal and political opinions did not even remain consistent within one’s own political party. In this time of new thought and differing opinions four documents help us outline the viewpoints of three different groups: white French males, women, and slaves—the latter being two of the most highly underrepresented groups in this time. While The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen by the National

De Gouges’ piece adopts the language and formatting of the National Assembly’s Declaration; her sole change was to insert feminine nouns and pronouns into the text, emphasizing that women should be understood as possessors of the same rights as men. De Gouge asks women to confront their being excluded, asking of them “What advantages have you gained in the Revolution?” (De Gouges, 305). She goes to great lengths to point out that the effects of the Revolution were clearly not as cut and dry as it seemed to the male population of France. She closes her work with a powerful call imploring women to fight for equality lest their male counterparts leave them behind. Also being excluded were the enslaved people of Saint Domingue. The people of Saint Domingue did not wait to be invited to partake in the newly proclaimed rights of man. Instead, they drafted the Haitian Declaration of Independence in which they declare themselves free while simultaneously shunning the French name of Saint Domingue and dubbing their land as Haiti. The Haitian Declaration openly expresses the Haitian’s contempt toward the French and their apathetic exclusion of slaves and people of color saying, “Anathema to the French name! Eternal hatred of France!” (Haitian Declaration, 302). Without a doubt the newly free Haitians recognized the systematic dismissal of slaves and people of color as people and were rightfully angry because of it. The male-centered French Revolution was shaken through these strong literary works in which both women and slaves provided passionate rebuttals to their exclusion and staked their own claims on universal rights and