Jacobins
political club during the French Revolution
The Jacobins were a group of radicalists who supported The French Revolution. Their leader was Maximilien de Robespierre, and they were in power of the French government from June of 1793 to July of 1794.
French: Club des Jacobins | |
 Seal of the Jacobin Club (1792–1794) | |
| Motto | "Live free or die" (French: Vivre libre ou mourir) |
|---|---|
| Successor | Panthéon Club |
| Formation | 1789 |
| Founder | Maximilien RobespierreJordan, David P. (2013). The Revolutionary Career of Maximilien Robespierre. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781476725710. Retrieved 17 February 2019. [Robespierre] was always more comfortable at the Jacobin Club than standing before the National Assembly. Not only had the Jacobins been formed in his own image, but he was assured of a sympathetic hearing before his friends. Robespierre had been a member of the Jacobins from its earliest Versailles days when it began inconspicuously as a gathering of deputies from the province of Brittany, along with some other interested adherents [...]. The group did not acquire its famous nickname, the Jacobins, until it rented an abandoned Dominican monastery, in the rue Saint-Honoré in Paris, whose monks had been known as Jacobins and whose building also shared the name. |
| Founded at | Versailles, France |
| Dissolved | 12 November 1794 |
| Type | Parliamentary group |
| Legal status | Inactive |
| Purpose | Establishment of a Jacobin society * 1789–1791: abolition of the Ancien Régime, creation of a parliament, introduction of a Constitution and separation of powers * 1791–1795: establishment of a republic, fusion of powers into the National Convention and establishment of an authoritarian-democratic state |
| Headquarters | Dominican convent, Rue Saint-Honoré, Paris |
Region | France |
| Methods | From democratic initiatives to public violence |
Membership (1793) | Around 500,000Brinton, Crane (2011) [1930]. The Jacobins: An Essay in the New History. Transaction Publishers. p. xix. ISBN 9781412848107. Retrieved 16 April 2015. |
Official language | French |
President | Antoine Barnave (first) Maximilien Robespierre (last) |
Key people | Brissot, Robespierre, Duport, Marat, Desmoulins, Mirabeau, Danton, Billaud-Varenne, Barras, Collot d'Herbois, Saint-Just |
| Subsidiaries | Newspapers * L'Ami du peuple * Le Vieux Cordelier |
| Affiliations | All groups in the National Convention * Montagnards * Girondins * Maraisards |
Initially founded in 1789 by anti-royalist deputies from Brittany, the club grew into a nationwide republican movement, with a membership estimated at a half million or more.
Members of the Jacobins would often belong to mainly to the less prosperous section of the society (the working class). They included shopkeepers, artisans, cooks, shoemakers and daily wage workers.
They dressed differently by wearing long striped trousers similar to those worn by dock workers.