The canuts () were

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

nais silk workers, often working on

Jacquard loom The Jacquard machine () is a device fitted to a loom that simplifies the process of manufacturing textiles with such complex patterns as brocade, damask and matelassé. The resulting ensemble of the loom and Jacquard machine is then called a Jac ...

s. They were primarily found in the Croix-Rousse neighbourhood of

in the 19th century. Although the term generally refers to Lyonnais silk workers, silk workers in the nearby commune of

l'Arbresle L'Arbresle () is a commune of the Rhône department, eastern France. Composer Claude Terrasse and inventor Barthélemy Thimonnier were born in L'Arbresle. Population See also * Communes of the Rhône department The following is a list o ...

are also called canuts.

Etymology

The word canut may come from an abbreviation of the French expression "Voici les cannes nues!" (''Look at those bare canes!''), as canes without any charms or

ribbon A ribbon or riband is a thin band of material, typically cloth but also plastic or sometimes metal, used primarily as decorative binding and tying. Cloth ribbons are made of natural materials such as silk, cotton, and jute and of synthetic mate ...

s were considered a sign of poverty. It may equally well come from the word ''canette'' ('' spool'') referring to the spool on which the silk was kept prior to being used.

History

The canuts were

nais silk workers in the 19th century, often working on

s primarily in the Croix-Rousse neighbourhood. The canuts were subject to extremely poor working conditions. On account of these conditions, they staged many worker uprisings, known as the Canut revolts. The first revolt, in October 1831 is considered to be one of the first worker uprisings. The canuts occupied Lyon, shouting "Vivre libre en travaillant ou mourir en combattant!" (''Live free working or die fighting!'') King

Louis-Philippe Louis Philippe I (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850), nicknamed the Citizen King, was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, the penultimate monarch of France, and the last French monarch to bear the title "King". He abdicated from his throne ...

sent 20,000

soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a Conscription, conscripted or volunteer Enlisted rank, enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, a warrant officer, or an Officer (armed forces), officer. Etymology The wo ...

s and 150

cannon A cannon is a large-caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder during th ...

s to suppress the "riot". On February 14, 1834, the canuts revolted a second time, occupying the heights of Lyon. The revolt lasted 6 days before being suppressed by 12,000 soldiers. According to historian Gérard Cholvy, the revolts had a profound effect on the French scholar

Frédéric Ozanam Antoine-Frédéric Ozanam (; 23 April 1813 – 8 September 1853) was a French Catholic literary scholar, lawyer, journalist and equal rights advocate. He founded with fellow students the Conference of Charity, later known as the Society of Saint ...

Other uses

Laurent Mourguet was an unemployed canut when he created the character Guignol and his eponymous

puppet show Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance that involves the manipulation of puppets – inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure, that are animated or manipulated by a human called a puppeteer. Such a performan ...

for children, supposedly in his own image. Cervelle de canut (lit. ''silk worker's brains'') is a cheese spread/dip, a Lyonnais speciality. The dish is a base of

fromage blanc ''Fromage blanc'' (; ; also known as ''maquée'') is a fresh cheese similar to cream cheese originating from the north of France and southern Belgium. The name means "white cheese" in French language, French. ''Fromage frais'' ("fresh cheese") di ...

, seasoned with chopped

herb Herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal purposes, or for fragrances. Culinary use typically distingu ...

shallot The shallot is a cultivar group of the onion. Until 2010, the (French red) shallot was classified as a separate species, ''Allium ascalonicum''. The taxon was synonymized with '' Allium cepa'' (the common onion) in 2010, as the difference was t ...

salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

, pepper,

olive oil Olive oil is a vegetable oil obtained by pressing whole olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea'', a traditional Tree fruit, tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin) and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking for frying foods, as a cond ...

and

vinegar Vinegar () is an aqueous solution of diluted acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains from 5% to 18% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting ...

. The canuts were the subject of songs by

Aristide Bruant Aristide Bruant (; 6 May 1851 – 11 February 1925) was a French cabaret singer, comedian, and nightclub owner. He is best known as the man in the red scarf and black cape featured on certain famous posters by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. He ...

and Éric La Blanche. In contemporary times, the word canut is often used to talk about citizens of Lyon in general in an affectionate way.

References

External links

Histoire des canuts
* La chanson d'

''Les canuts''
*{{in lang, fr La chanson d'Eric la Blanche
''Les canuts''
19th century in Lyon Society of France History of Lyon