Fernando M. Reimers et al.

Overview

The students will again extend their understanding of social movements
around the rights of individuals by looking at a less commonly understood
revolution, the Haitian Revolution.

Activity 5.4.1

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
versus the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and
the Declaration of Independence

The teacher explains to the class that the Haitian Revolution began, in large
part, because France did not extend the rights listed in the Declaration
of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen5 to Haitians. During the French
Revolution, the assembly that was created during the reign of Louis XVI
drafted a document that outlined the equal rights of all citizens. The class
begins a discussion on the freedoms that French people were seeking dur-
ing the Revolution, the freedoms that Americans were seeking during the
Revolution, and the freedoms that Haitians were seeking. Next, the stu—
dents, with the help of the teacher, discuss the similarities and differences
between the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, the US
Declaration of Independence, and the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights,6 using close—reading methods to study selections of text from these
primary documents.

Activity 5.4.2

Art and Toussaint Louverture7

The teacher begins the class by explaining that, just as the French Revolution
did, the Haitian Revolution inspired people all over the world, including
artists. Haiti was the first colony of blacks that gained independence, and

5 Available here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/partS/Bh1577t.html
6 http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml

7 An alternate spelling is “L’Ouverture.”