French History Advance Access originally published online on February 6, 2009
French History 2009 23(1):22-46; doi:10.1093/fh/crn064
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Vengeance, justice and the reactions in the Revolutionary Midi
* The author is a maître de conférences at Sciences Po, Paris. He may be contacted at sclay{at}club-internet.fr
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Abstract |
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This article explores the nature of political conflict, violence and justice in the Midi provençal during the French Revolution. It emphasizes the continuity of conflict between rival factions dividing most communes in the region throughout the Revolutionary decade, conflict that frequently issued in individual and collective violence, most notoriously the prison massacres of the White Terror (or the Reaction, as it was known among contemporaries) at Aix, Tarascon and Marseille in the spring of 1795. These massacres, among the most spectacular expressions of collective vengeance and popular justice in the Revolution, presented the nascent judicial system of the Revolution with some of its greatest challenges in the pursuit and punishment of these crimes, not least because of the political partiality of the judicial authorities. This article further illustrates how the phenomenon of multiple Reactions between warring factions, representing fundamental socio-economic differences and competing visions of the Republic, provides an understanding of the whole Revolutionary process in the region.