Reading
Primary Source Revolutionary Pamphlets
Excerpt 1: Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776)
Common Sense was a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775–1776 advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies. Writing in clear and persuasive prose, Paine marshaled moral and political arguments to encourage common people in the Colonies to fight for egalitarian government.
"Small islands not capable of protecting themselves, are the proper objects for kingdoms to take under their care; but there is something absurd, in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island. In no instance hath nature made the satellite larger than its primary planet; and as England and America, with respect to the course of nature, belong to different systems: England to Europe, America to itself.
To talk of friendship with those in whom our reason forbids us to have faith, and our affections wounded through a thousand pores instruct us to renounce, is madness and folly. Every day wears out the little remains of kindred between us and them; and can there be any reason to hope, that as the relationship expires, the affection will increase, or that we shall sooner agree, when we have ten times more to conquer than if we had now set out?
O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose not only the tyranny but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia and Africa have long expelled her. Europe regards her as a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. O! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind."
Excerpt 2: Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789)
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is a fundamental document of the French Revolution and in the history of human and civil rights. It defines individual and collective rights as universal. Inspired by the Enlightenment philosophers, the Declaration was a core statement of the values of the French Revolution and had a major impact on the development of freedom and democracy in Europe and worldwide.
"The representatives of the French people, constituted into a National Assembly, considering that ignorance, forgetfulness or contempt of the rights of man are the sole causes of public misfortunes and of the corruption of governments, have resolved to expose, in a solemn declaration, the natural, inalienable and sacred rights of man, so that this declaration, constantly present to all members of the social body, reminds them without cease of their rights and their duties; so that the acts of the legislative power and those of the executive power, being at every instant able to be compared with the goal of any political institution, are uniquely respected; so that the claims of the citizens, founded henceforward on simple and incontestable principles, always tend to the maintenance of the Constitution and to the happiness of all.
Article 1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions can be founded only on common utility.
Article 2. The goal of any political association is the conservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man: liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression.
Article 3. The principle of any sovereignty resides essentially in the Nation. No body, no individual can exercise any authority which does not emanate expressly from it.
Article 4. Liberty consists of doing anything which does not harm others: thus, the exercise of the natural rights of each man has only those borders which assure other members of the society the enjoyment of these same rights. These borders can be determined only by the law."
Excerpt 3: Frederick Douglass, What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? (1852)
In this powerful speech, delivered on July 5, 1852, abolitionist Frederick Douglass critiques the hypocrisy of celebrating American independence while slavery persisted. He calls for a revolutionary shift in moral and political consciousness.
"Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?
To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were answered by a whirlwind which swept them from the land.
For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the slave, and to deny the right of property in man. The right to hold slaves is not a moral right. It is not a Christian right. It is not a constitutional right. It is not a human right. It is not a natural right. It is not a divine right. It is a devilish right. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These rights are for all men, not just some."
