Author: Marquis de Lafayette

PRIMARY DOCUMENT

Lafayette’s Draft of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (July 11, 1789)

The Marquis de Lafayette presented a draft of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen to the French National Assembly on July 11, 1789, three days before the storming of the Bastille and the official start of the French Revolution. Lafayette wrote the document with the help of Thomas Jefferson, then the American ambassador to France. The National Assembly approved a revised version of the declaration in August of 1789.