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The Réveillon riots between 26 and 29 April 1789SafariX Textbooks Online – SafariX is now CourseSmart
centered in the St. Antoine district of Paris where a factory which produced luxury wallpaper was owned by
Jean-Baptiste Réveillon Jean-Baptiste Réveillon (1725–1811) was a French wallpaper manufacturer. In 1789 Réveillon made a statement on the price of bread that was misinterpreted by the Parisian populace as advocating lower wages. He fled France after his home and his ...
. The factory employed around 300 people. The factory where the riot took place was unusual in pre-revolutionary France as the factory was
guild A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular territory. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradespeople belonging to a professional association. They so ...
-free in an era where guilds controlled quality standards. Protests began after rumors spread that the owner had made a speech stating that workers, many of whom were highly skilled, were to be paid lower wages and, as a result, there would be lower prices. Workers were concerned with food shortages, high unemployment, and low wages after a difficult winter in 1788. However, Réveillon was known for his benevolence towards the poor and actually stated that bread prices should be brought down to those that people could afford (below 15
sous The Sous region (also spelt Sus, Suss, Souss or Sousse) (, ) is a historical, cultural and geographical region of Morocco, which constitutes part of the region administration of Souss-Massa and Guelmim-Oued Noun. The region is known for the en ...
a day) but his comments were misinterpreted as wage restrictions. He made the comments on 21 April when the assembly of the Saint-Marguerite was discussing its ''Cahier'' which all Estates drew up before the Estates-General was to be called. After informal protests on Sunday 26 April, groups of protesters congregated on the
Île de la Cité The Île de la Cité (; English: City Island, "Island of the City") is one of the two natural islands on the Seine River (alongside, Île Saint-Louis) in central Paris. It spans of land. In the 4th century, it was the site of the fortress of ...
and in the , Marais, and
Faubourg Saint-Antoine The Faubourg Saint-Antoine () was one of the traditional suburbs of Paris, France. It grew up to the east of the Bastille around the abbey of Saint-Antoine-des-Champs, and ran along the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine. Location The Faubourg Sain ...
the next day for a series of protest-marches. Though the first three marches - one of which targeted the Third Estate's Assembly of Electors - were resolved peacefully, confrontations between troops and participants in the fourth demonstration led to the outbreak of violence in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine that evening. While the protesters did not manage to destroy the factory, which was being guarded by a group of around fifty troops, a factory owned by the
saltpetre Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with a sharp, salty, bitter taste and the chemical formula . It is a potassium salt of nitric acid. This salt consists of potassium cations and nitrate anions , and is therefore an alkali metal nitrate ...
manufacturer Henriot was destroyed after he made similar comments. However Réveillon's factory was destroyed a day later as was his home.Chronology of the French Revolution: 1789–1790
The riot killed 25 people and wounded around the same number although rumour caused the casualty figures to be exaggerated. The French Guard were used to restore order. On the fantasy/crime drama
Grimm Grimm may refer to: People * Grimm (surname) * Brothers Grimm, German linguists ** Jacob Grimm (1785–1863), German philologist, jurist and mythologist ** Wilhelm Grimm (1786–1859), German author, the younger of the Brothers Grimm * Christia ...
, the Réveillon riots were noted in the fifth season in the episode Wesen Nacht to have been wesen-on-wesen violence.


See also

* List of food riots * Estates General of 1789 *
Cahiers de doléances The Cahiers de doléances (; or simply Cahiers as they were often known) were the lists of grievances drawn up by each of the three Estates in France, between January and April 1789, the year in which the French Revolution began. Their compilatio ...


References

*'The Oxford History of the French Revolution' by William Doyle * Micah Alpaugh, "The Politics of Escalation in French Revolutionary Protest: Political Demonstrations, Nonviolence and Violence in the Grandes journées of 1789," French History 23, no. 3 (Fall 2009), 336–359.


External links


An eyewitness account of the riot
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reveillon Riots 1789 events of the French Revolution Food riots 1780s riots Conflicts in 1789 1780s in Paris Labor disputes in France 18th-century scandals Political riots in France 12th arrondissement of Paris Political history of Paris 1789 crimes in Europe