They lived, they died. Why does it matter now? Why did these people have to die? What is the historical importance? It was shocking; yes, It was terrifying; yes, it happened long ago, yes, but we remember Robespierre, Saint-Just, Danton, Carrier and other key players of the French Revolution. The majority of people who died were peasants of meager means, if any income at all. They came from all classes, upper-class, lower-class, tradesmen, and peasants, all died without ‘faces’. We don’t know anything about the victims, except as phantoms of the past. Until recently, no one knew their names1, where they lived, worked for a living, had families, and a place in society, even scoundrels played their part. Now, they are forgotten. We will never know the names and the true amount of the tens of thousands of victims who died in sieges, massacres, firing squads, and murders of that were never recorded. It is estimated there were over 32, 000, if not more, who lost their lives
So let me introduce you to the ones who faced ‘Revolutionary Justice’: After extensive statistical research by Greer of the total amount of people who were judged, and sentenced to death is 16,5942. Along with the names, you will find varying genealogical information for your French genealogy research.. You can find an ever growing searchable database here So let us put a face to these victims of the French Revolution and attached the human element to help us know them better.
- Unkown researcher, webpage taken from the Wayback Machine https://web.archive.org/web/20190410062613/http://www.prospection.net/ ↩︎
- Greer, Donald pgs 157-165 The incidence of the terror during the French Revolution; a statistical interpretation – https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015002601550&seq=157 ↩︎