September Massacres

September Massacres
Part of the French Revolution
Contemporary engraving depicting the killing of priests, nuns and Princess de Lamballe. Captions with poems condemning the massacres in French and German.
Native name Massacres de Septembre
Date2–6 September 1792 (1792-09-02 – 1792-09-06)
LocationParis
TypeMassacres
CauseObsession with a prison conspiracy, desire for revenge, fear of advancing Prussians, ambiguity over who was in control
Participantssans-culottes, fédérés, and guardsmen
OutcomeHalf the prison population of Paris summarily executed
Deaths1,100–1,600

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]

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.[14][15] 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.[16] Of those killed, 72% were non-political prisoners including forgers of assignats (galley convicts), common criminals, women, and children, while 17% were Catholic priests.[17][18]

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.[19][20] 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.[21] According to modern historian Georges Lefebvre, the "collective mentality is a sufficient explanation for the killing".[22] 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."[23]

  1. ^ Madelin, Louis (1912). "XXI". La Révolution (in French). Hachette. p. 256. OL 18066429W.
  2. ^ "Collection Complète des Lois, Décrets, Ordonnances, Réglements, et Avis du Conseil-d'État". A. Guyot. 5 July 1824.
  3. ^ Caron 1935, pp. 107, 114.
  4. ^ Schama 1992, p. 611.
  5. ^ Furet & Ozouf 1989, p. 139.
  6. ^ "Collection Complète des Lois, Décrets, Ordonnances, Réglements, et Avis du Conseil-d'État". A. Guyot. 5 July 1824.
  7. ^ Danton, Georges Jacques (2 September 1792). "Histoire – Grands discours parlementaires – Assemblée nationale". assemblee-nationale.fr (in French).
  8. ^ Danton, Georges Jacques (2 September 1792). Bryan, William Jennings (ed.). "I. "Dare, Dare Again, Always Dare"". Bartleby.com. The World's Famous Orations. Retrieved 10 October 2022.
  9. ^ Danton, Georges Jacques (5 July 1910). Discours de Danton (Critique par André Fribourg ed.) – via gallica.bnf.fr.
  10. ^ Mantel, Hilary (6 August 2009). "He Roared (Review of Danton: The Gentle Giant of Terror by David Lawday)". London Review of Books. 31 (15).
  11. ^ Furet & Ozouf 1989, pp. 521–522.
  12. ^ Caron 1935, pp. 363–394, Part IV covers comparable events in provincial cities that transpired from July to October 1792.
  13. ^ McPhee, Peter (2016). Liberty or Death. Yale University Press. p. 162. ISBN 978-0-3001-8993-3. OL 27210650M.
  14. ^ Madelin 1912, p. 256.
  15. ^ Bluche 1986.
  16. ^ "Septembre 1792 : de la rumeur au massacre". www.lhistoire.fr.
  17. ^ Lewis, Gwynne (2002). The French Revolution: Rethinking the Debate. Routledge. p. 38. ISBN 978-0-2034-0991-6.
  18. ^ Bluche 1986, p. 235.
  19. ^ Hauck, Carolin; Mommertz, Monika; Schlüter, Andreas; Seedorf, Thomas (2018). Tracing the Heroic Through Gender. Ergon Verlag. ISBN 978-3-9565-0403-7.
  20. ^ Lawday, David (2010). The Giant of the French Revolution: Danton, A Life. Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. ISBN 978-0-8021-9702-3.
  21. ^ "Georges Danton – Danton's Committee of Public Safety". Encyclopedia Britannica.
  22. ^ Lefebvre, Georges (1962). The French Revolution: From its Origins to 1793. pp. 241–244, 236.
  23. ^ "Tackett, Timothy (2011) "Rumor and Revolution: The Case of the September Massacres", French History and Civilization Vol. 4, pp. 54–64" (PDF).