September Massacres

Q: What was the cause of the September Massacres?

The September Massacres were caused by a fear that the prisoners of Paris would be freed in a counter-revolutionary royalist plot, and proceed to indiscriminately burn down the city and kills its inhabitants.

Q: Who committed the September Massacres?

The September Massacres were committed mainly by gangs of sans-culottes, or revolutionary lower classes, although soldiers on their way to the front to fight the Prussians also joined in.

Q: What were the September Massacres?

The September Massacres were when mobs of citizens of Paris went to the city's prisons and killed 1,100-1,400 prisoners between 2-7 September 1792 during the French Revolution. Many victims were political prisoners, either priests or people suspected of royalist or counter-revolutionary sympathies.

Q: How did the September Massacres affect the French Revolution?

The September Massacres helped to introduce fear and violence as legitimate political tools during the French Revolution, paving the way for the Reign of Terror (1793-94).

Harrison W. Mark

Definition

The September Massacres refers to a series of mass killings that took place in the prisons of Paris between 2 and 7 September 1792, during the French Revolution (1789-99). Sometimes known as the first Terror, the massacres saw between 1,100 and 1,400 prisoners murdered by gangs of sans-culottes, driven by a fear that the prisoners would rebel and destroy Paris.

More about: September Massacres

Timeline

2 Sep 1792 - 7 Sep 1792
Between 1,100-1,400 prisoners, or half of Paris' total prison population, are killed in the September Massacres.
2 Sep 1792
The September Massacres begin in Paris during the French Revolution when over 1,000 of the prisoners held in the city are summarily executed owing to the fear that they would rise up in support of the Prussian army then advancing on Paris. The killings continued until 6 September.