The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was first drafted primarily by the Marquis de Lafayette, with help from Thomas Jefferson, and the final text was then shaped by a committee in France including Emmanuel- Joseph Sieyès and others.

Main author

  • The original draft was prepared by Marquis de Lafayette , a French aristocrat and Revolutionary leader.
  • Lafayette consulted his friend Thomas Jefferson, then the American minister to France, drawing on American revolutionary ideas.

Other key contributors

  • A committee of deputies in the French National Assembly reworked the draft; leading figures included Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès and Honoré (Comte de) Mirabeau.
  • The final form adopted in late August 1789 was therefore a collaborative product rather than the work of a single individual.

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