18 Ventôse
An CCXXXIV
Sans-culottes
The term sans-culotte (“without knee-breeches”) originally referred to small traders and itinerant workers who wore long trousers instead of the aristocratic knee-breeches customary at the time. During the Revolution, the word came to designate the politically active citizens of this social stratum – particularly the radical representatives of the Parisian people. The sans-culottes were not formally organised and had no clearly defined political programme. For politicians such as Robespierre, however, they formed an important base of power. On 9 Thermidor, Robespierre was also overthrown because, at the height of the Terror, he could no longer rely on the loyal support of the Parisian sans-culottes. The final two popular uprisings of the Revolution, in Germinal and Prairial of Year III (1795), failed after his fall. From then on, the sans-culottes no longer played a political role until the end of the Revolution.
JK
1792 - 1795
- 1790 · First documented uses of the term sans-culotte in pamphlets, newspapers and political speeches in Paris. The designation is still frequently used in a mocking or pejorative sense.
- 1792 · The term is reinterpreted positively and adopted as a self-designation – a symbol of revolutionary virtue, popular sovereignty and a break with the nobility.
- 1793 · The term sans-culotte is firmly established as a political rallying cry.
- July 27, 1794 · Robespierre is declared an outlaw. When the Commune attempts to act against the Convention, the support of the sans-culottes is lacking.
- May 20, 1795 · The final popular uprising of the Parisian sans-culottes against the Convention fails.
Quotes
A sans-culotte is one who always goes on foot, who lives modestly on the fourth or fifth floor. He is useful, for he knows how to saw wood, roof a house, make shoes, and shed to the last drop his blood for the good of the Republic.
Description of a sans-culotte in a newspaper from 1793.
The fatherland, damn it! The merchants have none. They supported the Revolution and joined hands with the sans-culottes to destroy the nobility only as long as it served their interests – merely to replace the aristocrats themselves.
Jacques-René Hébert, 1794
Bread and the Constitution of 1793!
Demand of the Parisian sans-culottes during the Prairial uprising of 1795.
Le Moniteur
Primidi, 1er Frimaire, l'an 2 de la République Française, une et indivisible
(November 21, 1793)
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