Before the revolution there was no freedom and democracy and equality in the country. There were rich nobles and the king and the common people lived in bad conditions and in poverty. They were not free because the law did not apply equally to everyone and the king was ruining the country. French revolution was based on enlightenment ideals which claimed that liberty was one of the basic human rights and since they did not have it they decided to take it by force from the king. Of course, when the revolution happened, the people who were in charge pretended that the country was a democracy but it was rather a type of a dictatorship where people were politically prosecuted and punished often by death. The people were however free since they had things like constitutions and laws but it wasn't a complete democracy.
