Global InformationSeptember Massacres information
| 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 |
|---|---|
| Date | 2–6 September 1792 |
| 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 |
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.[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]
- ^ a b L. Madelin, Chapter XXI, p. 256
- ^ "Collection Complète des Lois, Décrets, Ordonnances, Réglements, et Avis du Conseil-d'État". A. Guyot. 5 July 1824.
- ^ P. Caron (1935), p. 107, 114
- ^ S. Schama, p. 611
- ^ "F. Furet & M. Ozouf (1989) A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution, p. 139" (PDF).
- ^ "Collection Complète des Lois, Décrets, Ordonnances, Réglements, et Avis du Conseil-d'État". A. Guyot. 5 July 1824.
- ^ "Danton (2 septembre 1792) – Histoire – Grands discours parlementaires – Assemblée nationale". www2.assemblee-nationale.fr.
- ^ "I. "Dare, Dare Again, Always Dare" by Georges Jacques Danton. Continental Europe (380–1906). Vol. VII. Bryan, William Jennings, ed. 1906. The World's Famous Orations". www.bartleby.com. 10 October 2022.
- ^ Danton, Georges-Jacques (1759–1794) Auteur du texte (5 July 1910). Discours de Danton / édition critique par André Fribourg – via gallica.bnf.fr.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Mantel, Hilary (6 August 2009). "Hilary Mantel · He Roared: Danton · LRB 6 August 2009". London Review of Books. 31 (15).
- ^ F. Furet and M. Ozouf, eds. A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution (1989), pp. 521–22
- ^ P. Caron (1935) Les massacres de Septembre, p. 363-394. Part IV covers comparable events in provincial cities that transpired from July to October 1792.
- ^ P. McPhee (2016) Liberty or Death, p. 162
- ^ Bluche, Frédéric (1 January 1986). Septembre 1792 : logiques d'un massacre. Robert Laffont (réédition numérique FeniXX). ISBN 9782221178560.
- ^ "Septembre 1792 : de la rumeur au massacre". www.lhistoire.fr.
- ^ Gwynne Lewis (2002). The French Revolution: Rethinking the Debate. Routledge. p. 38. ISBN 9780203409916.
- ^ Frédéric Bluche (1986) Septembre 1792 : logiques d'un massacre, p. 235
- ^ Hauck, Carolin; Mommertz, Monika; Schlüter, Andreas; Seedorf, Thomas (9 October 2018). Tracing the Heroic Through Gender. Ergon Verlag. ISBN 9783956504037.
- ^ Lawday, David (6 July 2010). The Giant of the French Revolution: Danton, A Life. Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. ISBN 9780802197023.
- ^ "Georges Danton – Danton's Committee of Public Safety". Encyclopedia Britannica.
- ^ Georges Lefebvre, The French Revolution: From its Origins to 1793 (2001) p. 236
- ^ "Tackett, Timothy (2011) "Rumor and Revolution: The Case of the September Massacres", French History and Civilization Vol. 4, pp. 54–64" (PDF).