7th grade Assessment 1: Revolutions

The abbé Lefeuvre was a village priest in France, who kept a journal of events in his parish. In 1709, a severe winter storm lasted for a number of weeks. 

Here, he recounts the problems experienced in his village.

The cold began to be felt at the end of October 1708 … The wind shifted to the north, the rain that had been falling all day long turned into 

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ice and snow …

Finally, after three weeks of this cold, which increased continually, the thaw came. …what remained of the produce of the earth, which could not resist the terrible nights that caused almost everything to die, so that it was scarcely possible to gather enough to provide for 

next year’s seed. …

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It was hardly possible even for those who knew how, to find money, when there wasn’t any. The number of poor people increased incredibly because the continuing rains of the previous year, 1708, had been very bad and had damaged the grain crops. … The poor of the 

countryside were destitute of any aid, no longer possessing a cabbage or a leek in their gardens, so they crowded into the cities …

But they were soon begrudged the only help they had. They were forced, by the threat of great penalties, to return to their homes, and there soon appeared the most beautiful edicts in the world to help them, which, however, served only to increase their misfortune. Each parish 

was supposed to feed its own poor; but for this it would have been necessary for the poor to feed the poor. So these lovely edicts were without effect, and the only way to help the poor, by decreasing the taxes with which they were burdened, was never put into practice. On 

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the contrary, they were increased.

This is an excerpt of John Armitage’s History of Brazil, published in 1836. A young British merchant who had lived in Brazil, Armitage wrote this based on his personal experiences.

At the close of the last century, the population [of Brazil] … [was comprised of] two-fifths Negro slaves. The majority of the free population were also a mixed race, derived jointly from African, Indian, and European origin; the white inhabitants being the only class as yet 

entrusted with political power. …

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Education had as yet made little progress among them. … The histories of Greece and Rome, the [Social Contract] of Rousseau, and such few tray volumes of the writings of Voltaire and the Abbe Raynal as had escaped the vigilance of the authorities, were hitherto their only sources of information. …

On the establishment of the independence of the United States of North America, a vague aspiration for the similar enfranchisement of Brazil was undoubtedly cherished there; but this feeling was long limited to such individuals as had become aware of the existing state of 

other countries … public opinion could not at this period be said to have any existence.

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During the year 1789, a conspiracy was formed by a few influential individuals … [not to proclaim] an independent republic, [but to] ascertain what cooperation they were likely to meet with … From a diminution in the product of the gold mines in this district, several of the 

individuals working them were in considerable arrear for taxes. These arrears the government in Lisbon had ordered to be paid up, but with little regard to the practicability of the demand. Much irritation had in consequence been excited. …

A conspiracy, originating exclusively among the people of color, was also organized in Bahia during the year 1801. … Their condition … was wretched. …

In this excerpt of her 1768 poem, Philadelphia Quaker Hannah Griffitts defies British consumer taxes by calling on women to refuse to purchase tea. She refers specifically to Lord George Grenville, the chancellor of the British Exchequer and author of the tax policy. 

Since the Men, from a Party or fear of a Frown,

Are kept by a Sugar-Plumb, quietly down.

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Supinely asleep—and deprived of their Sight,

Are stripped of their Freedom, and robbed of their Right; 

If the Sons, so degenerate! the Blessing despise,

Let the Daughters of Liberty nobly arise;

And though we’ve no Voice, but a negative here.

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The use of the Taxables, let us forbear:—

(Then Merchants import till your Stores are all full, 

May the Buyers be few, and your Traffic be dull!) 

Stand firmly resolved, and bid Grenville to see

That rather than Freedom we part with our Tea,

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And well as we love the dear Draught when a-dry, 

As American Patriots our Taste we deny— …

Join mutual in this—and but small as it seems,

We may jostle a Grenville, and puzzle his Schemes; 

But a Motive more worthy our Patriot-Pen,

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Thus acting—we point out their Duty to Men;

And should the Bound-Pensioners tell us to hush, 

We can throw back the Satire, by biding them blush.

John Locke (1632–1704), an English philosopher, wrote the Second Treatise of Civil Government in 1690, in which he makes an argument for natural rights.. 

MEN being, as has been said, by nature all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this estate and subjected to the political power of another without his own consent. The only way whereby any one divests himself of his natural liberty and puts on the bonds of 
civil society is by agreeing with other men to join and unite into a community for their comfortable, safe, and peaceable living one amongst another, in a secure enjoyment of their properties …

The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but to have only the law of nature for his rule. The liberty of man in society is to be under no other legislative power but that established by 
consent in the commonwealth … Freedom then is not … ‘a liberty for every one to do what he [wants], to live as he pleases, and not to be tied by any laws’; but freedom of men under government is to have a standing rule to live by, common to every one of that society and made by the legislative power erected in it, a liberty to follow my own will in all things where the rule prescribes not, and not to be subject to the inconstant, uncertain, unknown, arbitrary will of another man; as freedom of nature is to be under no other restraint but the law of nature.

The Code Noir was a 1685 decree under the French King Louis XIV which defined the conditions of slavery throughout the French colonial empire. Below is an excerpt from this decree.

Article XV. We forbid slaves from carrying any offensive weapons or large sticks, at the risk of being whipped and having the weapons confiscated. The weapons shall then belong to he who confiscated them. The sole exception shall be made for those who have been sent by 

their masters to hunt and who are carrying either a letter from their masters or his known mark.

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Article XVI. We also forbid slaves who belong to different masters from gathering, either during the day or at night, under the pretext of a wedding or other excuse, either at one of the master’s houses or elsewhere, and especially not in major roads or isolated locations. They 

shall risk corporal punishment that shall not be less than the whip … for frequent recidivists and in other aggravating circumstances, they may be punished with death. … We enjoin all our subjects, even if they are not officers, to rush to the offenders, arrest them, and take them 

to prison, and that there be no decree against them. … 

Article XVIII. We forbid slaves from selling sugar cane, for whatever reason or occasion, even with the permission of their master. …

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Article XIX. We also forbid slaves from selling any type of commodities, even fruit, vegetables, firewood, herbs for cooking and animals either at the market, or at individual houses, without a letter or a known mark from their masters granting express permission.

Mariano Moreno (1778–1811) was an Argentine lawyer and politician who was a key figure in the first national government of Argentina that was created after the 1810 May Revolution. Below is a petition he wrote to the Spanish government in 1809 on behalf of Argentine landowners, expressing their demands.

Most Excellent Senor:

He, whom the workers and landowners of the rural areas of Banda Oriental and Occidental of the Rio de la Plata have empowered to confer with you about the expedient of opening up trade with England … declares: …

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The landowners have a legitimate right to be represented in advising Your Excellency as to the means of reconciling the prosperity of the 

country with the needs of the treasury. We see the solution as removing the obstacles to trade. …

They are justly persuaded that any profit gained from our land should immediately revert to its owners and cultivators. …

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… it is the duty of the government to provide for the people’s needs. …

The removal of obstacles to the import of foreign goods will have to be accompanied in equal measure by the removal of obstacles to the export of goods. Fortunately, the products of this province are highly desirable, [and] of ready availability. … Our agriculture would be very 

rapidly stimulated if the doors to all exportable goods were open and the farmer could count on profitable sales. …

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If Your Excellency desires to promote our good, the route that leads to it is very simple: reason and the celebrated Adam Smith … lead us to see that governments that want to provide for the general good should be limited to removing obstacles. 

François-Marie Arouet (1694–1778), known by his pseudonym Voltaire, was a French writer and intellectual. This is a selection of his book Philosophical Letters, in which he reflected on his experience living in England between 1726 and 1729. It was first published in English in 1733 and then in French the following year. 

There is no such thing here in England as the power enjoyed by the French lords to judge in all matters, civil and criminal; or their right or privilege of hunting in the grounds of a citizen, who at the same time is not permitted to fire a gun in his own field.

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No one is exempted in [England] from paying certain taxes, because he is a nobleman or a priest. All imposts and taxes are fixed by the House of Commons, whose power is greater than that of the peers. … When the bill has passed the lords and is signed by the king, then the 

whole nation pays, every man in proportion to his revenue or estate, not according to his title, which would be absurd. There is no such thing as an arbitrary subsidy or poll tax, but a real tax on the lands, the value of which was determined in the reign of the famous King 

William III.

The land tax continues still upon the same footing, though the revenue of the lands is increased. Thus no one is tyrannized over, and everyone is in comfortable circumstances. The feet of the peasants are not bruised by wooden shoes; they eat white bread, are well 

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clothed, and are not afraid of increasing their stock of cattle, nor of tiling their houses, from any apprehensions that their taxes will be raised the year following.