The Third Estate Abbe Sieyes Summary

1) The Third Estate had many complaints and demands from the King. The third estate was considered to be the minority of France which included peasants, bourgeoisie, and urban laborers. The complaints of wanting fairer taxes, not owning their own land, landlords having too much power, and other things were brought up in assemblies of Estates General. These list of grievances, or cahiers de doleances, were drawn up in a list but there was no follow up by the king and also led to conflict between the estates from not wanting to lose any power or money. French thinkers such as Abbe Sieyes’s had various theories about the Estates General and discussed this in a political pamphlet called “What is the Third Estate? “. Abbe Sieyes stated his opinion
The first article constructed was the “Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen”. This addressed how the rights of man should be universal as well the rights of the estates. Most of the rights assembled were adapted from the Declaration of Independence in America. This document left out important factors that needed to be changed within the government. This brought forth the “August Decree” to abolish feudalism and serfdom. There was still some slaves but freedom was given based on society or class. The Nation Assembly also felt that the church held too much power. They were tired of paying the church tithe and wanted to reorganize the church so the “Civil Constitution of the Clergy and the Constitution of 1791 was created to address these complaints. This led to a conflict with Pope Pius VI who condemned this constitution and excommunicated a lot of clergy. Excommunicated clergy could bless the peasants land, perform sacraments, and only led to the growth of counterrevolutionaries. The question of these documents addressing the complaints of the Third Estate is that they were attempts at change but some