My name is Henri Chevrolet and I am a farmer from the Third Estate. My family and I lived through the French Revolution. I documented my life and the extreme events that happened during this time and my view on them in my journals below. Enjoy!
The revolution led to many changes for France and its people. For one, we got the Declaration of the Rights of Man, France’s first constitution, by the powerful perseverance of those of the Third Estate. This affected all three Estates by taking away the unfair privileges the Church and Nobles had and gave lower class people, like my family and myself, the right to vote and so much more! As well as that, we no longer had an official monarch or the royal family. Even more, a new feeling of fear spread across my town and even society. The fear of being taken and executed in time when so many were.
So many things stayed the same or similar both before, during, and after our revolution. The similarities between the King and Napoleon are the most obvious. Even though Napoleon isn’t an official monarch, he has power much like the Kings and uses it similarly too. Less obvious is the suffering we still experience. Although, it is a different kind of suffering than the king’s time when we were hungry and overworked. Now, we suffer through the mourning of those lost in the Reign of Terror and throughout the revolution.
The official start of the French Revolution was in 1789, when the first real actions to equality was carried out by the Third Estate making the Tennis Court Oath, which fought for a constitution. The Third Estate was treated extremely unfair up to this. They were paying all the taxes and doing all the work that supported France and the government while the First and Second Estates and the Church did practically nothing to contribute. With only one of three Estates paying taxes, the government was facing serious financial difficulties. This led to the Estates General, a meeting between all three Estates, where the First and Second Estates refused to pay. This led to the Third Estate breaking off to fight for a constitution and called themselves the National Assembly. The Third Estate had the greatest population and when the people of the Third Estate began to rebel it was practically impossible to control. Events such as the Great Fear and the Storming of the Bastille were the citizens rebelling while the National Assembly was unable to stop them. The video below is a summary of the major events from the time of the Estates General until Napoleon’s rule in 1799. We talk about causes and effects of things such as the Reign of Terror and more. I hope you enjoy the video!!
Born a Crime, a book written by Trevor Noah, tells the shocking story of Trevor’s life in South Africa during Apartheid. Trevor, who was “born a crime”, is a mixed-race person which was made in illegal in South Africa during this time. I was fascinated by this book because it shows the honest realty of the childhood experienced by the hilarious well-known comedian by showing the government-related issues he faced as well as the personal issues he encounters. Struggle and overcoming hardship are quite big themes for this book. Trevor gives factual examples as well as personal examples by talking about himself and his family and friends. One of the most common people to come up in this book is Trevor’s mom, who had to concur many difficulties to provide Trevor with the best life possible despite the disadvantages she already had put on her by society and the government. One of my favorite quotes in this book is when she said, “I’m going to give you everything I never had” (72). Her constant, unconditional love for Trevor was always comforting during darker times in the book.
Trevor Noah is a comedian and is currently hosting The Daily Show. Below is a video of of him talking about his experience with his mom being shot by his stepfather found on Trevor Noah’s channel on YouTube. There are many more videos on his channel if you would like to see more.
One on the themes in this book came up many times and was present throughout the book: Even when life is hard you should stick together. This was always an important part of the book and applied to many different occasions’ across the story as well as relationships between many characters. Below are some of the examples I found in the story:
Below is a page that shows causes and effects of Trevor hanging out and working in the ‘hood’. Because this wasn’t a large part of the story, it was amazing how many things pushed him there and how being there largely influenced his future. The page shows some examples present throughout the story:
Apartheid was always a present problem throughout the book, even after it ended it influenced what happened to Trevor and his friends and family. A lot of events were affected by Apartheid, and it created conflict and hard-living conditions which is a central idea represented below with examples that were there throughout the course of the book.
Throughout the story there were many pressures put on Trevor Noah. From the very beginning to the ending of the story Trevor faced many expectations and difficult situations put on him. On my pressure map, I tried to incorporate most of the examples I came across in the book.
The book was entertaining as well as informational. I learned a lot about Apartheid and what South Africa was like during this time as well as Trevor’s life and what he personally experienced. Trevor did such a good job with this book that it was hard to put down. If you are looking for your next book, I recommend Trevor Noah: Born a Crime over any book out there.
Are you a humanist? If you want to find out or just want to find out what a humanist is, then this infographic will explain the most important parts of what a humanist is and what they believe.
My found poem is from page 4 of “Just Lather That’s All” by Hernando Tellez. It shows the internal conflict, (Self vs. Self), between the Barber, the protagonist, deciding whether or not the kill the antagonist, Captain Torres while shaving his beard. This is a hard decision because on the one hand, Torres is the enemy who has been executing his people. Although killing someone isn’t as easy as Torres makes it look. Who knows what would happen to him if he killed the Captain. He could be hunted, executed, or even captured. And now the town barber has to decide if he should become the town murder and the hero for his people or lay low and let Captain Torres go free and with a fresh shave.
When you blog you create posts and posts are categorised according to your subject. Some categories have already been set up for you. If you need more categories you can add them as needed. It’s important that your posts have the following:
An engaging title – this should not include the name of the subject since this is referenced in the category.
Body – this is where you share your learning. This can include text, images, embedded videos from Dragons’ Tube or elsewhere. You should always consider how your post looks to your audience. Is it engaging? Do they want to keep reading?
Category – select one that has been set for you or add a new category. Posts can have more than one category e.g. Humanities and Myself as a Learner
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