Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (French: La Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen) was adopted on August 26, 1789 by the National Constituent Assembly (Assemblée Nationale Constituante) and is one of the very fundamental documents of the French Revolution that also greatly impacted the revolutionary movement in St. Domingue. The declaration, although seemingly covering all persons, was not applied to slaves or free people of color in the French colonies, this was driving force behind some of the revolts leading up to the Haitian Revolution.

The Declaration was drafted by the Marquis de Lafayette and was adopted by the National Assembly, it was intended as part of a transition from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy. Many of the principles laid down in the declaration directly oppose the institutions and usages of the ancien régime of pre-revolutionary France. In the event, France soon became a Republic, but this document remained fundamental.

The principles set forth in the declaration come from the philosophical and political principles of the Age of Enlightenment, such as individualism, the social contract as theorised by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and the separation of powers espoused by the baron de Montesquieu.