France adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man
On this day · 26 August 1789
In the heat of revolution, France's assembly proclaimed liberty, property, and equality before the law as natural, inalienable rights.
On August 26, 1789, the National Constituent Assembly of France approved the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, voting article by article between August 20 and 26. Its 17 articles declared that men “are born and remain free and equal in rights,” naming liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression as natural and inalienable.
The text enshrined equality before the law, freedom of expression, and the separation of powers. Drafted with input from Lafayette and others, it served as the preamble to France’s first constitution.
“Men are born and remain free and equal in rights.”
The Declaration drew on Enlightenment thought and the example of the American revolutionaries, yet its sweeping universal language outran its moment, omitting women and the enslaved. It would be invoked, contested, and expanded for centuries, and remains part of France’s constitutional foundation today.
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