Give me Liberty or Give me Death? Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité?

Choose your slogan and be a Rebel this summer in commemoration of the French and American revolutionary period. Browse our selection below of texts from the enlightenment philosophers whose ideas spawned revolutions, history and historical fiction about the French revolution.

This summer we we also take inspiration from these "other" --often overlooked-- revolutionaries:

Toussaint Louverture, the Black slave who led the only successful slave revolt in history, Heavily influenced by the enlightenment philsophers and French revolutionary ideals, he led the slave rebellion in Haiti (then Saint Domingue) which achieved the abolishment of slavery in the colony in 1793, and set the stage for Haitian independence in 1804.

Olympe de Gouges, who many consider one of the world's first feminists. She supported the moderates of the French revolution and went a step further to highlight the hypocrisy of espousing liberal ideas of equality and freedom while ignoring the suppression of women. Two years after the declaration of the Rights of Man, she wrote the "Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen"). She also championed the cause of abolitionism, in 1788 writing an essay entitled Reflections on Black Men.

This summer the U.S. Supreme Court has shown us we can never take our hard-won rights for granted. Like the revolutionaries before us, let's act to preserve the ones we still have -- and restore those which have been taken away.

REVOLUTIONARY FRIENDS: GENERAL GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE