Test a universal claim against the people it excluded
Three steps, the way the exam actually works: work through the lab, write down your own observations, then answer a 9-point free response. What you recorded goes to the grader with your writing, so a conclusion that does not follow from your own evidence will cost you the point — exactly as it would with a real reader.
Predict before you look
- A claim written as universal — “all men” — either applies to everyone or is a claim about a smaller group written in universal language. Name one way you could tell which, using evidence outside the document.
- Before reading, write down who you think the French National Assembly of 1789 intended to include in “men.”
Nothing to submit here — these are to think through, so the prediction below is an informed one rather than a guess.
Commit to an answer now. It is not graded and being wrong costs nothing — the point is to have something specific to reconcile against once you have the data.
Answer every prediction to unlock the lab. A sentence is enough.
Run the investigation
Predictions first
The procedure and the simulation unlock once you have committed above. Observing before predicting is how a wrong intuition survives a lab intact.
Record what you found
This is your reading of the source, not ours. The grader sees them, so your conclusions have to follow from what you actually recorded.
| Year of the Declaration of the Rights of Man | |
|---|---|
| Year of the Declaration of Independence | |
| Years between the two declarations(Subtract the earlier from the later.) | years |
| The four rights named in the excerpt’s second sentence | |
| Any clause in the TEXT restricting who holds these rights — or “none” | |
| Where the text says sovereignty resides | |
| The purpose the lab names |
Answer the free response
Using the document you analyzed: (a) List the four rights the excerpt names and state where it locates sovereignty, then explain which political system each claim was written against. (b) Using your “restriction” cell, explain the gap between what the text says and how it was applied, naming at least two groups excluded in practice. (c) A classmate argues the Declaration was therefore meaningless hypocrisy. Evaluate that claim, using at least one case of someone who used the document’s own language to demand inclusion. (d) Explain what this document lets a historian conclude and what it does not, and identify one kind of source you would need in order to establish how ordinary French people understood these rights in 1789.
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