FreePrimarySources

Source Sets / World History

Source set · 7 sources ✓ Lesson ready

Did the French Revolution live up to its own ideals?

Revolutionary declarations and speeches are tested against Olympe de Gouges, the Terror, and Burke's critique.

Timeline of key events →

Teach it

✓ Lesson ready

A ready-to-run lesson for this set: Hot Seat: Voices of the Revolution. Slides include a hook, one slide per source, directions, a take-a-stand vote, an exit ticket, and a teacher script in the speaker notes.

Make a copy (Lesson Slides)Make a copy (Lesson Plan + materials)

1. Hook: a striking quote 3-5 min

What is the Third Estate? Everything.
Abbé Sieyès, What Is the Third Estate? (1789)

Ask: In 1789 the Third Estate (commoners) was about 98 percent of France but had one vote out of three in the Estates-General. Was Sieyès right?

2. Main activity: Hot Seat: Voices of the Revolution

Grouping: Six hot seat volunteers; the class asks questions in pairs

Setup: Each volunteer plays one author. The class asks questions and scores each person on how well the Revolution, as they describe it, lived up to “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.” Answers must stay true to the source.

Materials (printables are in the Lesson Plan Doc)
  • Hot seat role cards (printable pages in the Lesson Plan Doc)
  • Evidence cards for all 7 sources
  • Question sheet with a Liberty / Equality / Fraternity scorecard
  1. Prepare questions 5 min
    Pairs read the evidence cards and write one question for each role.
  2. Prepare the hot seat 5 min
    Volunteers study their role cards. Show the Bastille engraving as the opening image.
  3. Hot seat 25 min
    About 4 minutes per role. The class fills in the scorecard for each.
  4. Debrief 8 min
    Which ideal was best kept? Which was most broken?
  5. Exit ticket 5 min
    Students answer on a slip before leaving.

Take a stand: Did the French Revolution live up to its own ideals?

  • Mostly yes: It ended noble privileges, declared that men are born free and equal in rights, and spread those ideas across Europe.
  • Mostly no: Rights did not extend to women, as de Gouges protested, and the Terror executed thousands, including revolutionaries themselves; Burke had warned of this.

3. Pacing options

15-minute bell-ringer

  • 3 min Hook: Sieyès
  • 8 min Compare the Rights of Man (1789) with Robespierre on terror (1794): what happened to liberty in five years?
  • 4 min Exit ticket question 1

Full 50-minute lesson

  • 4 min Hook: Sieyès
  • 10 min Prepare questions and roles
  • 25 min Hot seat
  • 6 min Debrief and vote
  • 5 min Exit ticket

4. Exit ticket

  1. Which source best shows the Revolution keeping or breaking its ideals? Explain.
  2. Robespierre called terror a kind of justice. How would de Gouges or Burke answer him?

5. Differentiation

Support

  • Adapted Docs (easier reading) in this set: Declaration of the Rights of Man
  • Provide a short glossary: estate, deputy, conscript, the Terror, guillotine.
  • Let volunteers read answers from their role cards.

Extension

  • Compare Article 1 of the Rights of Man with the first lines of the Declaration of Independence.
  • Research what happened to Sieyès after 1794; how did he survive the Revolution?

Suggested sequence

  1. Sieyès: What Is the Third Estate? (1789)
    Document · Fordham University · World: Revolutions (1750-1900) · Grades 9-12 · ⏱ 15 min
    The pamphlet that argued the common people were the nation.
    Ask: Who is 'the nation'?
    Open with this source to frame the question.
    Original ↗Copy DocSOAPSToneHIPP / HAPP
  2. Declaration of the Rights of Man
    Document · Yale Avalon Project · World: Revolutions (1750-1900) · Grades 9-12 · ⏱ 10 min
    1789 French declaration.
    Ask: How did revolutionary ideas spread across the Atlantic?
    Original ↗Copy DocCopy AdaptedSOAPSToneHIPP / HAPP
  3. The storming of the Bastille on the 14 July 1789. Line engraving with etching.
    Image · Wellcome Collection · World: Revolutions (1750-1900) · Grades 9-12 · ⏱ 5 min
    Wellcome Collection item (found via Europeana): The storming of the Bastille on the 14 July 1789. Line engraving with etching..
    Ask: How did artists depict the storming of the Bastille?
    Original ↗See-Think-WonderOPTIC
  4. Olympe de Gouges: Declaration of the Rights of Woman (1791)
    Document · Fordham University · World: Revolutions (1750-1900) · Grades 9-12 · ⏱ 15 min
    De Gouges's rewrite of the Declaration of the Rights of Man to include women.
    Ask: Did the French Revolution's ideals include women?
    Original ↗Copy DocSOAPSToneHIPP / HAPP
  5. The Levée en Masse (1793)
    Document · Fordham University · World: Revolutions (1750-1900) · Grades 9-12 · ⏱ 5 min
    Revolutionary France's decree drafting the whole nation for war.
    Ask: How did the French Revolution change war?
    Original ↗Copy DocSOAPSToneHIPP / HAPP
  6. Robespierre: On the Principles of Political Morality (1794)
    Speech · Fordham University · World: Revolutions (1750-1900) · Grades 9-12 · ⏱ 20 min
    Robespierre's defense of 'virtue and terror.'
    Ask: Can terror ever be justified to protect a revolution?
    Original ↗Copy DocSOAPSToneHIPP / HAPP
  7. Burke: Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
    Document · Fordham University · World: Revolutions (1750-1900) · Grades 9-12 · ⏱ 20 min
    Burke's conservative critique of the French Revolution.
    Ask: Should change come quickly or slowly?
    Close with this source before writing.
    Original ↗Copy DocSOAPSToneHIPP / HAPP

Watch

Free videos to pair with this set. Preview before showing in class.

Culminating writing prompt

Using evidence from at least three sources in this set, write an argument that answers the question: “Did the French Revolution live up to its own ideals?” Cite each source by title, explain how its author, audience, and purpose affect its reliability, and respond to at least one counterargument.

Printable writing sheet (make a copy)

Students can plan with the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning organizer.