The U.S. Constitution was adopted in 1787, followed in 1791
by the Bill of Rights. The bill included 10
amendments
to the
Constitution that limited the power of the government by
granting rights to individual citizens.
Extending Rights to All
In France and the United States, it was clear that the documents
gave rights to all groups in society. In France, Olympe de Gouges
wrote her own Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the
Female, as women were excluded from the original. In the United
States, rights were not extended to Native Americans or to enslaved
Africans. The history of civil rights activism is, in some ways, the
story of fighting to make governments extend rights to everyone.
The U.S. Constitution did
not give any rights to the
nearly 4 million enslaved
Africans in the country.
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