September Massacres
Paris prison killings
The September Massacres were a series of mob killings in Paris during the French Revolution, occurring September 2–7, 1792.
Fearing that imprisoned royalists and counterrevolutionaries would be released to attack the city while armies marched to meet invading Prussian forces, crowds stormed the prisons and killed between 1,100 and 1,400 prisoners.
The massacres became a symbol of revolutionary violence and mob justice.
- prisonersIncarcerated individuals
- sans-culottesRevolutionary French working-class radicals
- mob violenceGroup-inflicted harm
- JacobinsFrench revolutionary faction
- tribunalsBodies adjudicating disputes
blood in the streets · French Revolution · National Convention · political prisoners · Marie Antoinette · revolutionary tribunal · Louis XVI · guillotine · priests · aristocrats · Thomas Paine · Enlightenment ideals · slaughter · vengeance · crowds · Marat · violence · mob
September Massacresdue process
Guaranteed judicial fairness
fair trial · rule of law · presumption of innocence · judicial execution · habeas corpus
September MassacresThermidorian Reaction
Conservative backlash after Terror
Reign of Terror · peaceful revolution · Velvet Revolution · Glorious Revolution · negotiated settlement
September Massacresmercy
Compassion toward offenders
amnesty · sanctuary · prisoner release · clemency · rescue operation
September, massacre, massacres, massacred, massacring, septet, septennial, septuple