Making comparisons: In what different ways does the idea of “rights” find expression in these four documents and in the Portrait? Which documents speak more about individual rights and which focus attention on collective rights? What common understandings can you identify?
Considering ideas and circumstances: Historians frequently debate the relative importance of ideas in shaping historical events. What impact do you think the ideas about rights expressed in these documents had on the historical development of the Atlantic world and beyond? And what specific historical contexts or conditions shaped each writer’s understanding of “rights”?
Imagining a conversation: How might the authors of these four documents have responded to one another? What points of agreement might they share? What differences might arise in a conversation among them?