In response to the news that royal soldiers had desecrated a symbol of national rejuvenation, the revolutionary cockade, Marat published in his newspaper, The Friend of the People, the following letter calling for all patriotic citizens to take up…
On 15 July 1791, the Jacobins held a demonstration on the Champ de Mars in Paris to gain signatures for their petition. A contingent of National Guard soldiers, led by General Lafayette, fired on the crowd, killing at least fifty, in what became…
In the aftermath of the King’s failed flight in June 1791, the more radical clubs circulated petitions calling on the National Assembly to depose the King rather than grant him executive power as a constitutional monarch, under the new constitution.…
Throughout the spring of 1793, radicals in the Convention, in the Paris Commune, and in the sections struggled for power against Jean–Pierre Brissot and his allies, known as the "Girondins." They differed over how the revolution should be affected by…
By the summer of 1794, Revolutionary Tribunals had tried over 200,000 suspects, of whom approximately 20,000 had been convicted of treasonous behavior and sent to the guillotine. Moreover, the work of the Terror was intensifying, although the worst…
Having carried the day in the Jacobin Club, Robespierre rose to speak the next day in the Convention, where he attacked members of the Committee of Public Safety and Committee of General Security, until now his closest collaborators, for their…
During the night of the 9th and 10th, with the outcome in doubt, deputies opposing Robespierre went to speak in the sections, hoping to convince the activists of the rightness of their cause. Whether out of political exhaustion, loss of their ability…
By creating a fictional man named Jacques who must go to his workshop every day so he can support his family, yet who also wants to do his patriotic duty by following political events, the Révolutions de Paris, in this article that appeared in late…
In late July and early August 1792, amid ongoing rancor over the King’s role in the government and fears that he would betray the nation to the invading Prussians, various Parisian sections began petitioning for Louis to be deposed. In the text…
The passage below, excerpted from the newspaper the French Patriot of 6 December 1792, is hostile to Robespierre. It suggests Robespierre’s appreciation for the importance of political symbolism, in calling for the smashing of Mirabeau’s bust, and it…
