Aimée’s Journal Entry-French Revolution

Elaine Du

The Tennis Court Oath

National Assembly

The situation in France is in chaos for a while already. Whether it is the members in the third estate or those people who are not clergy or nobles, they are all complaining that the tax is too high. The third Estate really wants the right to be equal with nobles and clergy and lower the taxes for them. In my opinion, I actually understand that, but I just can’t help them, and I don’t have the ability to say anything about that. But I know that the third estate is the most tired and unequal, but how can people say that to the King or the Queen? Nobody wants to die, right?

My family has earned the freedom from taxation, also my father is a respected general and he now was helping me to protect a charge in the military, because I have just joined the second estate, I am looking forward to this honorable work. But, what have the common people done to deserve somewhat similar rewards? My first military job is to encourage the crowds to keep the evidence of public in a good position. I am really happy to have a chance to show my working skills and letting everyone else to trust me. We French will not let common people using us like chess piece.

The King's challenges are growing daily, as some of the nobles and members of the bourgeoisie are becoming supporters of the enlightenment and complaining about the monarchy. We all can simply see that the bourgeoisies doesn’t want to pay more taxes to help our King meet the prices of government.

The Estates-General about the voting happened back on May 5th 1789, when the king was forced to call a meeting of this at Versailles. They were choosing representatives in every estate, and I was one of the 300 representatives from second estate. The goal for us that day was to let the Third Estate gains more power by decreasing the privilege of the King and Queen. Now my brain had split into half, because I fell really badly for the third estate, I really want to help them, and I know that there are also some noble feels the same as me. But what can we do? How can we help them?

Every people in the third estate wanted to vote by per person instead of voting as an estate. But we have teamed up with the clergy and have been beating them up by two to one. The Third Estate wants "one vote per man" to give an expression to show the wishes of such a large part of the population. They had even called a National Assembly to create a new French constitution. Upon on my advice, the King has already ordered the use of force against these actions.

Yesterday was an important day. So many things happened on the Tennis Court about the Oath. The Third Estate established the National Assembly, but was locked out of their regular meeting place at Versailles. So they moved to the indoor tennis court. They promised not to leave until France had a new Constitution. The king gave up and told the First and us to join them. The Estates General had done nothing and no one could make any decisions on King Louis’ proposals of taxes and the voting system that he had put out. The stories of the Third Estate are now familiar to many first and second estate citizens.

Journal entry #1June 21, 1789 

Storming of the Bastille

Marched on Versailles

We are all lost! The King's power has been abandoned. On 5 October 1789, a crowd of common people stormed the Bastille, destroyed it brick by brick. The armies are no longer able to control all those people and rebellions happened all over France.

Apart from the fears about the allies of French army and the King might bring in crowds to support him, the Third Estate has taken in a more intense step.

Soon after the storming of the Bastille, wild rumors spread that we were signing people who doesn’t follow the law to scare the peasants, which is mostly people in the third estate. Then there came a wave of panic that has no sense in France. Soon, many peasants doesn’t follow the law themselves and kept forks or other farm tools. Like a crowd of angry rhinoceros, they broke into people’s village’s houses, destroying the old legal papers that had bound them to pay out-of-date taxes, and sometimes they even burned down some houses that are in there village. My mother was really confused what was going on with them, cause she doesn’t really care about what was going on for the rising price of bread. But I can see the power of that the Third Estate have right now, many of my fellows and clergy joined them. I left the streets and wanted to find a refuge for our family estate. By then, the National Assembly met again and announced that the rights and the money privileges of the noble and clergy have been eliminated. Also, according to there "Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen", all men are equal right now; they all can share their opinion in the creation of the new laws.

The more amazed thing is that even women are now in a part in this destroying of the French society. Women in the market of Paris organized it naturally, just in the morning of three days ago, which is October 5, 1789. They complained about the high price and how much bread they can only get, marching from Paris to Versailles.  The third estate marched on Versailles and soon went to the National Assembly to tell them about the problem. Then, they brought weapons and went to the palace. All of them required that Louis and Marie return to Paris. And soon later, the king, his family, and their servants left the Versailles.

Oh dear god! My grandfather, who had earned the nobility for our whole family must be turning over in his serious now! I was so afraid about the violence that happened in France, but anyway, this is our country, our home – we must live through this.

Journal Entry #2 October 8, 1789

Fall of Robespierre

Robespierre

I have already been hurt greatly since I was discharged by the crowed from our family estate during the Great Fear. I am now staying with friends outside of Paris. I am often hungry and depressed in the face of my injury position. Where I was once respected, but now was ignored. The National Assembly has now made their laws officially by completing a new constitution. This constitution had set up a legal monarchy. What this means is that the King still recalls his name, but, same as before, he doesn’t have any real power.

This Revolution disgusts me! My money is slowly running out as I continue to try to live in a new style, and my income is greatly decreased.

Grabbing on their opportunity, the new National Convention stopped the monarchy by running the King and building a republic. In order to meet this disaster, the National Convention gave the great power to the Committee of Public Safety, which was leading by Robespierre. He was able to increase the army that is over 1 million men.

Robespierre turned on the people he thought were traitors to the Revolution within France. During the Terror, he killed nearly 25,000 men and women. I’m so afraid that I would be the next one whose been killed, I need to go hide now. I am shocked! My beloved royal France is not here anymore!

After a period of time, blood has been shed, Robespierre was been murdered, and he was sent to the guillotine and killed. The government then told all people that they shouldn’t be people like Robespierre and we should be afraid to have powers like him. I personally think that this was a good choice. We all know that Robespierre is over violence. He had killed so many innocent people, so as a result, the National Assembly was forced to put him to death on the guillotine.

The death of Robespierre had made a big impact on the rebellion. Some people think that what the National Assembly did was good and put Robespierre where he should be. But others think that it is not a good decision, even though he caused a huge number of people to die, but he didn’t deserve death.

Now the National Assembly had decided to wipe out Robespierre and his follows completely to get rid of the thought they have. His power gave him the ability to kill people that he saw to disturb the law but he was just as bad as the people he killed.

I was kind of dizzy about the situation right now. My brain is stuck, there are too many thoughts going through my head at once. What will happen if the revolution happened but we win and the government is overthrown, what will happen then? What will we do to make France a better place to live? These questions continue to pop into my mind, I can’t really think of anything right now, but one thing I do know is that the revolution continues, things like this will continue to take place and all I can do, is watch and wait.

May 5, 1794Journal Entry #3

Citations• "Tennis Court Oath." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Mar. 2015.

Web. 19 Mar. 2015.• "The French Revolution of 1848European History Summary France." The

French Revolution of 1848 : European History Summary France. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2015.

• Britannica, Encyclopædia. "Bastille | Historical Prison, Paris, France." Encyclopedia Britannica. The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica, 7 July 2014. Web. 19 Mar. 2015.

• Eric. "Engendering Theory." : Burke and Wollstonecraft. Engendering Theory, 30 Aug. 2012. Web. 19 Mar. 2015.

• "Maximilien Robespierre." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Mar. 2015. Web. 18 Mar. 2015.

• "Bible in the News | France Returns to Its Revolutionary Roots." Bible in the News | France Returns to Its Revolutionary Roots. Bibleinthenews, 02 June 2012. Web. 19 Mar. 2015.