September Massacres
1792 killings of prisoners in Paris / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The September Massacres were a series of killings and summary executions of prisoners in Paris that occurred in 1792, from Sunday, 2 September until Thursday, 6 September, during the French Revolution. Between 1,176 and 1,614 people[1] were killed by sans-culottes, fédérés, and guardsmen, with the support of gendarmes responsible for guarding the tribunals and prisons,[2] the Cordeliers, the Committee of Surveillance of the Commune, and the revolutionary sections of Paris.[3][4][5]
Part of the French Revolution | |
Native name | Massacres de Septembre |
---|---|
Date | 2–6 September 1792 (1792-09-02 – 1792-09-06) |
Location | Paris |
Type | Massacres |
Cause | Obsession with a prison conspiracy, desire for revenge, fear of advancing Prussians, ambiguity over who was in control |
Participants | sans-culottes, fédérés, and guardsmen |
Outcome | Half the prison population of Paris summarily executed |
Deaths | 1,100–1,600 |
With Prussian and royalist armies advancing on Paris, and widespread fear that prisoners in the city would be freed to join them, on 1 September the Legislative Assembly called for volunteers to gather the next day on the Champs de Mars.[6] On 2 September, around 1:00 pm, Minister of Justice Georges Danton delivered a speech in the assembly, stating: "We ask that anyone refusing to give personal service or to furnish arms shall be punished with death.[7] The bell we are about to ring... sounds the charge on the enemies of our country."[8][9][10] The massacres began around 2:30 PM in the middle of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and within the first 20 hours more than 1,000 prisoners were killed.
The next morning, the surveillance committees of the commune published a circular that called on provincial patriots to defend Paris by eliminating counter-revolutionaries, and the secretary, Jean-Lambert Tallien, called on other cities to follow suit.[11] The massacres were repeated in a few other French cities; in total 65–75 incidents were reported.[12][13]
The exact number of victims is not known, as over 440 people had uncertain fates, including from 22 to 200 Swiss soldiers.[1][14] The identity of the perpetrators, called "septembriseurs", is poorly documented, but a large number were Parisian national guards and provincial federates who had remained in the city since their arrival in July.[15] 72% of those killed were non-political prisoners including forgers of assignats (galley convicts), common criminals, women, and children, while 17% were Catholic priests.[16][17]
The minister of the interior, Roland, accused the commune of the atrocities. Charlotte Corday held Jean-Paul Marat responsible, while Madame Roland blamed Georges Danton.[18][19] Danton was also accused by later French historians Adolphe Thiers, Alphonse de Lamartine, Jules Michelet, Louis Blanc and Edgar Quinet of doing nothing to stop them.[20] According to modern historian Georges Lefebvre, the "collective mentality is a sufficient explanation for the killing".[21] Historian Timothy Tackett deflected specific blame from individuals, stating: "The obsession with a prison conspiracy, the desire for revenge, the fear of the advancing Prussians, the ambiguity over who was in control of a state that had always relied in the past on a centralized monarchy: all had come together in a volatile mixture of anger, fear, and uncertainty."[22]