Anderson J.M. Daily Life during the French Revolution
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and the family. The principles of freedom of religion as enunciated in the
Declaration of the Rights of Man resulted eventually in the separation of
church and state and freedom of worship for Protestants and Jews.
Yet memories of the Terror and mass conscription for the military were
never far from the minds of many citizens. The civil war in the Vendée,
which cost around 400,000 lives, turned the inhabitants against republi-
canism for generations. The great mass of working people in both urban
and rural settings continued to live in much the same manner after as
they had before the revolution. Their lives in fact changed little before the
middle of the nineteenth century, when migrations to the urban communi-
ties increased and production in large businesses became more effi cient.
City dwellers and the sans-culottes were eventually transformed into the
working class of the industrial revolution, while the upper bourgeoisie
remained the dominant element in society. A new social class of capitalists
emerged, distinguished from workers by their ownership or control of the
means of production. The poor and the destitute continued to make up a
major and growing underclass. The local city or village councils could not
cope with relief for them, and the series of work schemes and relief mea-
sures proposed by the government were piecemeal and never adequately
fi nanced.
The initial staunch supporters of the revolution, the urban workers
and the sans-culottes, had sacrifi ced much and gained little in concrete
benefi ts.
The system of the old regime was replaced by one in which cash became
the important ingredient between a new generation of capitalist farmers
and the workers they employed. Costly wars still took their money in
taxes and their sons off to battlefi elds, thwarting the farmers’ dreams of
self-suffi ciency. Landless laborers remained the most vulnerable to depre-
dation and hunger.
Women emerged from the revolution with the right to inherit equally
with their brothers and to sign legal contracts if they were unmarried;
but precious little else changed. The divorce laws of 1792 were sharply
curtailed in 1804 and abolished in 1816.
The registry offi ce for births, deaths, and marriage was passed from
church to state; the sale of offi ces ended. Administrators of the old regime
were largely maintained, but some offi cial offi ces were eliminated, includ-
ing the one that oversaw collection of the salt tax (later reinstated). The
military changed little; the majority of the offi cers, once émigres, had
served the old regime.
In the coup d’état of November 9, 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte joined a
conspiracy against the government, seizing power and establishing a new
regime—the Consulate. Under the Consulate’s constitution, Bonaparte,
as fi rst consul, had dictatorial powers. On February 16, 1800, he issued
a decree that effectively reduced local government councils to rubber
240 Daily Life during the French Revolution
stamps, and three days later, he took up residency in the royal palace of
the Tuileries.
Mayors and deputy-mayors of towns of more than 5,000 inhabitants
were now to be directly appointed by the First Consul himself; offi cials for
other towns were appointed by the department administrator, the prefect,
who himself had been sanctioned by Napoleon. It was much the same
as under the old regime, when the king had appointed the intendant to
administer the districts. Candidates for local councils, appointed for 20
years, were selected on the basis of property qualifi cations. Judges also
were appointed rather than elected.
Napoleon had himself crowned emperor in 1804; he established a court
and made counts, dukes, and even kings of his relatives and friends. For
many who had lived under the old regime, it must have seemed like a
case of déjà vu. The reform and codifi cation of the diverse provincial and
local laws culminated in the Napoleonic Code. Press censorship was rein-
troduced, along with a new salt tax, an effi cient spy system, and a police
force. Custom houses at the gates of the cities were reestablished. The
revolution did not meet the high hopes of the working people that they
would be given power. It was not until 1848 that all men of age were given
the vote, and not until 1944 did women gain the franchise. Workers waited
until 1864 for the right to strike and twenty years beyond that for the right
to form trade unions. Free, secular, and compulsory education came only
in the 1880s, and welfare provisions for the infi rm, the elderly, and the
unemployed were not instituted until the twentieth century. The new
hierarchy under Napoleon, which after 1799 was based on the criterion of
wealth, retained many nobles of the old regime. Those who had escaped
the guillotine and others who returned from exile again began to play a
major economic and political role. Of the 281 men Napoleon appointed
to administrate the departments, nearly half were from old aristocratic
families. In 1815, after the downfall of Napoleon, a limited monarchy was
restored that endured until 1848.
Aftermath 241
Appendix 1
Declaration of
the Rights of Man
and Citizen
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen adopted by the National
Assembly on August 26, 1789.
Articles:
1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinc-
tions may be founded only upon the general good.
2. The aim of all political association is the preservation of the nat-
ural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty,
property, security, and resistance to oppression.
3. The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation.
No body nor individual may exercise any authority which does
not proceed directly from the nation.
4. Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures
no one else; hence, the exercise of the natural rights of each man
has no limits except those which assure to the other members of
the society the enjoyment of the same rights. These limits can
only be determined by law.
5. Law can only prohibit such actions as are hurtful to society.
Nothing may be prevented which is not forbidden by law, and
no one may be forced to do anything not provided for by law.
6. Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has a
right to participate personally, or through his representative, in
its foundation. It must be the same for all, whether it protects
or punishes. All citizens, being equal in the eyes of the law, are
equally eligible to all dignities and to all public positions and
occupations, according to their abilities, and without distinction
except that of their virtues and talents.
7. No person shall be accused, arrested, or imprisoned except in
the cases and according to the forms prescribed by law. Any one
soliciting, transmitting, executing, or causing to be executed any
arbitrary order, shall be punished. But any citizen summoned
or arrested in virtue of the law shall submit without delay, as
resistance constitutes an offense.
8. The law shall provide for such punishments only as are strictly
and obviously necessary, and no one shall suffer punishment
except it be legally infl icted in virtue of a law passed and pro-
mulgated before the commission of the offense.
9. As all persons are held innocent until they shall have been
declared guilty, if arrest shall be deemed indispensable, all
harshness not essential to the securing of the prisoner’s person
shall be severely repressed by law.
10. No one shall be disquieted on account of his opinions, includ-
ing his religious views, provided their manifestation does not
disturb the public order established by law.
11. The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most
precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly,
speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible
for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defi ned by law.
12. The security of the rights of man and of the citizen requires pub-
lic military forces. These forces are, therefore, established for the
good of all and not for the personal advantage of those to whom
they shall be intrusted.
13. A common contribution is essential for the maintenance of the
public forces and for the cost of administration. This should be
equitably distributed among all the citizens in proportion to
their means.
14. All the citizens have a right to decide, either personally or by
their representatives, as to the necessity of the public contribu-
tion; to grant this freely; to know to what uses it is put; and to
fi x the proportion, the mode of assessment and of collection, and
the duration of the taxes.
15. Society has the right to require of every public agent an account
of his administration.
244 Appendix 1
16. A society in which the observance of the law is not assured, nor
the separation of powers defi ned, has no constitution at all.
17. Since property is an inviolable and sacred right, no one shall
be deprived thereof except where public necessity, legally deter-
mined, shall clearly demand it, and then only on condition that
the owner shall have been previously and equitably indemni-
fi ed.
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen 245
Prepared by Gerald Murphy (The Cleveland Free-Net—aa300). Distrib-
uted by Cybercasting Services Division of NPTN.
Appendix 2
The Republican
Calendar
A new calendar was introduced by the Convention on October 5, 1793,
to date from September 22, 1792, the day after the proclamation of the
First Republic. It replaced the Gregorian calendar and rejected the Chris-
tian view of reckoning time and events from the birth of Christ. It was
to represent a new start. The new names of the months were inspired by
nature, and although their aspirations may have been universal, the revo-
lutionary calendar was based on the seasons of northern France. The fi rst
year under the new system was called An I (Year I), the second An II, and
so on.
The year was divided into 12 months, each of which had 30 days. Each
season comprised three months, named according to their natural charac-
teristics. Thus, September 22, 1792, became the fi rst day of the Revolution-
ary Calendar, 1 Vendémiaire year I.
The names of the months were:
1. Vendémiaire (vintage)
2. Brumaire (fog)
3. Frimaire (frost)
4. Nivôse (snow)
5. Pluviôse (rain)
6. Ventôs (wind)
7. Germinal (seed)
8. Floréal (blossoms)
9. Prairial (meadows)
10. Messidor (harvesting)
11. Thermidor (heat)
12. Fructidor (fruit)
The month was divided into three decades, of which the fi nal day
was a day of rest. This was an attempt to de-Christianize the calendar,
but it was unpopular because now there were now only three days of
rest in a month instead of four. The 10 days of each decade were called,
respectively, Primidi, Duodi, Tridi, Quartidi, Quintidi, Sextidi, Septidi,
Octidi, Nonidi, and Decadi. The fi ve or six remaining days following
the last day of Fructidor at the end of the year (September 17–21 in the
Gregorian calendar) were designated national holidays and called by
these names:
1. Fête de la vertu (virtue)
2. Fête du génie (genius)
3. Fête du travail (work)
4. Fête de l’opinion (opinion)
5. Fête des récompenses (rewards)
6. Jour de la révolution (leap-year day)
The conversion of a Republican date to a Gregorian one is as follows:
Year 1: September 22, 1792
Year 2: September 22, 1793
Year 3: September, 1794
Year 4: September 23, 1795
Year 5: September 22, 1796
Year 6: September 22, 1797
Year 7: September 22, 1798
Year 8: September 23, 1799
Year 9: September 23, 1800
Year 10: September 23, 1801
Year 11: September 23, 1802
Year 12: September 24, 1803
The Republican Calendar 247
Year 13: September 23, 1804
Year 14: September 23, 1805
A new clock was also established according to which the day was
divided into 10 hours, each consisting of 100 minutes composed of 100
seconds.
248 Appendix 2
Glossary
Armée Révolutionnaire —An armed force of Jacobins and sans-culottes
raised in late summer 1793 to propagate the revolution in the countryside
and to force farmers to release their stocks of grain for Paris and other
towns. Disbanded after the executions of the Hébertists.
Assignats —Interest-bearing bonds based on the value of confi scated
church property that after April 1790 became paper money. They rapidly
lost value and by 1795 were almost worthless.
Bourgeoisie —Term pertaining to the urban upper middle class of the Third
Estate; professionals such as lawyers, doctors, bankers, brokers, manufac-
turers, and offi ce holders in the royal bureaucracy. Other members of the
bourgeoisie lived on investments from property or other holdings.
Cahiers de Doléances —Lists of grievances drawn up in early 1789 in spe-
cially convened meetings of citizens in regional districts and cities and
representatives of each of the three orders of the Estates. They exposed
problems inherent in the political and social system that could be acted
upon by the deputies elected to the Estates-General.
Certifi cat de Civisme —Documentary proof of civic virtue and revolution-
ary purity; generally demanded of applicants before employment could
be obtained in the Paris sections during the Terror. The documents were
issued fi rst by the municipality and then by the surveillance committees.
Denial of a certifi cat meant that one was suspected of antirevolutionary
thoughts or activities. Their issuance came to an end after the Terror.